The Quincy Reborn?
by pehpig
Summary: Sequel to "Waking Up" Uryuu and Nemu grow closer in their relationship after their adventure in Mictlan, but their relationship is threatened by the arrival of another quincy!  Rated T for violence and suggestiveness.  Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Uryuu and Nemu start to grow into their new relationship. Everything is going smoothly until Karakura comes under attack.

The old man stood in the driving rain, watching as the shinigami appeared before him in the gloom. Behind him, the men stood ready, row upon row dressed in white. In times past, this high mountain campground had served as a meeting place for the annual gathering of the clan. Those had been joyous times, when families renewed bonds, new techniques were discussed and practiced, and marriages were arranged for the young. It would never be used for that purpose again. Today, it was being used as a lure. And a battleground. As the clan chief, he had told them that any who wished to leave with their family would be allowed to do so with no shame or censure. Not one accepted his offer. Such was the strength of quincy pride.

The shinigami had no insignia indicating their division or any markings of rank. It didn't matter. Their leader wasn't difficult to spot. A tall man with long hair, beard and mustache, he carried himself with the air of one used to obedience. By the feel of his reiatsu, it was obvious he was a captain, a very powerful one at that. His men halted at his signal, standing stiffly and uneasily as the captain strode forward. He stopped before the chief. He bowed low, with sincerity and respect etched on his face. The chief bowed in return, more shallowly as befitting a man of his station.

"You know why we are here?" The captain said. It was more a declaration than a question.

The old man nodded. "We were expecting you. As you can see, we are prepared."

The captain frowned. "I see only men here. Since when do quincys keep their women from battle?"

"They have their own mission." The chief replied.

He felt no obligation to tell the shinigami anything further. He almost smiled at the memory of the last clan meeting. The women protested bitterly to be included in this last stand. He even wished a few were here. Some of them were the most skilled fighters in the clan. That also gave them the best chance of survival as they fled across the country, taking the children and trying to find a place to hide. In the end, he had to convince them that survival of the quincy was far more important than making this futile gesture against Soul Society. Even now, facing extinction, they held strongly to their quincy pride.

"You sent them into hiding." The captain guessed. "That was futile. You know we're going to hunt them down. You cannot hope to save them all."

The chief's face betrayed nothing. "I can hope to save enough."

The captain stepped closer. He pitched his voice so only the old man could hear him over the rain.

"Takafumi, you've known me all of your life. We talked many times before about how shingami and quincy can work together. It's still not too late. Make your clan stand down. Promise me you will stop destroying hollows. Do that and I will ask for mercy from the Central 46. The fate of the world is at stake, can't you understand that?"

"Understand?" The chief said. "You speak to me of understanding? You who have failed to protect us as our people are hunted and slain by these monsters? How can you ask us to watch and do nothing as we witness people's souls being devoured, or worse? We were giving these powers for a reason. It couldn't have been to stand by and do nothing. "

The pain in his heart was almost physical, forcing him to clutch at his walking stick to stay on his feet as he remembered with horror what had happened to his children, his son-in-law, his only grandchild. There had been no shinigami around to protect them. Now there was no one left to carry on his line. His future was already destroyed.

"We cannot stop." He declared. "To do so would not be human."

The captain's gaze did not waver as he looked into the elder's eyes. He could see nothing there but resolve. There was no doubt or fear. There was no possibility of him backing down. He would hold on to the infamous quincy pride even now, at the end. Thunder rolled across the sky.

"So be it." The captain said.

At a gesture, the sound of a hundred zapakutos being drawn from their sheathes contrasted with the hum of spirit bows igniting, echoing against the stone of surrounding mountainsides in the damp, rain-soaked air. It seemed to pour down even harder as the shinigami gave their war cry and charged into battle. All around, bolts of blue energy flew to meet the ranks of black. Bodies soon fell, in black and white. Through it all, the clan chief and the captain stood facing each other, surrounded by an island of tranquility in the middle of the violence.

The old man took no actions to defend himself as the captain drew his zampakuto. He watched with his hands on his walking stick as the shinigami raised the sword high in preparation. A look passed between them communicating all. Each knew the other was playing a part neither had chosen. The captain did as his duty demanded. With one clean strike, he cut the old man down. As his opponent fell, the bubble around them disappeared. He joined his men in finishing off the clan.

As his lifeblood poured out on the ground, the old man wept for his people, for the loss of their knowledge and culture as much as for their lives. He allowed himself this one last indulgence. With the rain, no one would see this shameful act. The screams of the dying filled his ears. Across Japan and even around the world, the quincy were being exterminated. Soul Society would do their best to ensure none were left to continue destroying hollows and unbalancing the harmonious cycle of death and re-birth. It had been too late for him to find a way for the quincy to fit in to the cycle instead of disrupting it.

As his vision grew dark, he took comfort in the hope that some of his people would get away. The quincy legacy would carry on. Maybe someday, his people would figure out a way to truly move in harmony with the world and keep the cycle balanced. It was always possible as long as there were so much as one last quincy.

* * *

They began with Nemu staring passionately into Uryuu's eyes. He held his hand out to her and she took it. He forcefully drew her body against his. Slowly at first, their bodies swayed, getting a feel for each other's rhythm. They soon achieved synchronicity, each gesture flowing smoothly into the next, each action prompting a corresponding reaction. Moving with more confidence, sweat soon began to bead on their faces and roll down their backs, breathing growing more labored with their exertions. Faster and stronger they moved, passion etched in every line of their bodies, their obvious chemistry giving a fire to their every motion. Their world shrank down to the small circle of space they occupied making it feel as though they were the only two people in the world. Their skins glowing wet with sweat, they panted as they moved towards their climax. Bodies arched and straining, they gave their all as they exploded in an abrupt, powerful finish. For a moment, they stared into each other's eyes in a world of complete stillness. The moment of silence was shattered as the audience surged to their feet with thunderous applause!

Nemu looked around with a surprised smile. "They like us!" She said.

"Look over there." Uryuu replied. "There's our scores."

Nemu grinned even wider to see how well they'd done. She had never danced competitively before and hadn't dared hope to do so well. An announcement blared overhead.

"That was couple #42, Ishida Uryuu and Kurotsuchi Nemu, finishing out the samba portion of the competition. Up next, we have couple #27, Akamatsu Genichi and Kawagishi Miyo, starting the Cha Cha Cha."

"Come on." Uryuu said as he took her hand. "Let's go rest before the next set."

Hurrying to the sidelines, they cleared the dance floor for the next couple. Nemu looked around in wonder as Uryuu led her away. So many people clapping with smiling faces. It was fantastic way to start her vacation.

* * *

The rain beat down on their umbrella as they walked down the street. Nemu read the inscription on the trophy for what was probably the hundredth time.

"Honorable Mention, 25th Annual Karakura Latin Dance Competition."

The tiny metal and wood statue couldn't have been more than twenty five centimeters high. Still, Nemu held it close at though it were made of diamond, a pleased and joyous smile on her face. Uryuu smiled as well to see her happy. It had been his idea to enter the competition. Well, not his idea exactly…

The whole thing had been an accident. His father, Ryuuken, was furious when Uryuu returned from what he called 'another hare brained, idiotic, needlessly reckless adventure.' He took the unusual step of grounding him for a month and forbid him to see his 'trouble making friends'. He even took some time off from his job at the hospital. He watched Uryuu like a hawk. That suited Uryuu just fine. After nearly losing his life yet again in a strange dimension, he was more than ready for some peace and quiet. Besides, he had something new to occupy his time.

He hadn't been home more than a day before Nemu figured out a way to send text messages from Soul Society. It was a pleasant and welcome surprise. They sent messages back and forth for hours at a time. How Unohana was keeping her at the fourth division for a while to convalesce. How he was settling back into his daily routine. More and more, they talked about when they could see each other again. Uryuu was overjoyed when she let him know she was released. After several days, they could finally meet! He told her to meet him at his usual spot.

Reality hit him as soon as he pressed send. How was he supposed to meet her? He was still grounded. Maybe Ryuuken wouldn't notice if he just stepped out for a while. Everything seemed to be going well right up until he tried to walk out the back door.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Ryuuken asked from behind his newspaper. He had been so still, Uryuu hadn't noticed him sitting there. He froze with his hand on the doorknob.

"Out." He tersely replied.

"'Out' is not an acceptable response." Ryuuken said as he lowered his paper to look at his son. "Need I remind you you're still grounded?"

"You have to let me out of the house." Uryuu said. "I've been cooped up here for days."

"Considering the trouble you get into whenever you're out of my sight, you should be glad if I ever let you go anywhere at all ever again." His father told him.

"I'm old enough to take care of myself" Uryuu snarled.

"Not old enough to be considered an adult." Ryuuken calmly replied, not taking the bait. "As you are still under my care, I still make the rules here. If you want to go somewhere, you owe it to me to tell me where you are going."

What could he say? Saying he was going for a walk would be just as bad as saying 'out'. Saying he was meeting with friends wouldn't work since he was not allowed to see them. His father knew he had no interests in movies or other hobbies that would make him anxious to leave the house. He didn't want to lie. That was dishonorable and unquincylike. As his mind spun in circles trying to think of what to say, he noticed an ad on the back of his father's paper. He couldn't say why he said what came next.

"Dance lessons." He blurted out.

"What?" Ryuuken replied. He seemed at least a little surprised.

Uryuu was shocked himself. Like a man who accidentally stumbles over a sharp drop, he had to move fast or he would trip up. "Yes, I decided to take your advice and find a more social hobby. I decided on ballroom dancing."

Ryuuken looked skeptical. "You're taking my advice?"

Uryuu pointed at the ad in the paper. "In fact, I'm going by to look at this dance studio this afternoon."

Ryuuken folded his paper over to look at the ad. "Noguchi Dance studio." He looked up at Uryuu. "Seriously? You were going to ask about lessons from this studio today?"

Uryuu gulped. It was starting to sound weird even to him. There was no backing out now though. He had to keep pressing through.

"That was my intention." He answered.

He was unprepared for Ryuuken's response. He smiled. It was not a pleasant sight. It was a thin, knowing smile that said "gotcha." He folded his paper up and put it aside.

"I tell you what Uryuu." Ryuuken said, "I think I'll go with you."

* * *

"Dr. Ishida, so glad to see you!" The small, middle aged woman said.

"Noguchi-sensei, it's good to see you too." His father replied as he took her hand. "How are your knees?"

"They feel so much better." The woman who was obviously the owner of the Noguchi Dance Studio said. "Now that I'm recovered from surgery I can move freely with no pain. I feel like I'm twenty years younger. You're a miracle worker doctor!"

Ryuuken modestly waved away the praise. "A positive attitude and cooperative actions are more important than my tinkering. I wish we had more patients like you."

Noguchi-sensei covered her mouth as she smiled. "You are too kind doctor. Nice though you are, I'd rather not be a patient again."

Ryuuken's courteous smile broadened at her little joke. "Heaven forbid you ever need my services again madam. However, it appears that I need yours."

The woman's brow furrowed at this odd revelation. "Oh? In what way?"

Ryuuken gestured to a sulking Uryuu. "This is my clumsy and talentless son." He said. "Do you think it is within your considerable ability to teach this awkward child to dance?"

Uryuu ground his teeth in frustration as they began to negotiate. They went back and forth as though Uryuu wasn't even there, going over prices, lesson dates and times, and mandatory equipment. Before he knew it, he was committed to dance lessons for the next six months.

During their negotiations, he sent Nemu a text about how he was so, so, so sorry that he was late and that he was stuck at the dance studio. He asked if they could try again some other time. She didn't reply.

"That appears to be everything." Ryuuken said. "Thank you for allowing my son in to your studio. I hope he won't embarrass you with his ineptitude."

"Nonsense." Noguchi-sensei said. "He's looks like a fine young man. I'm sure he'll learn quickly."

"Could you do me a favor?" Ryuuken asked. "Could you keep me abreast of his progress? I'd like to know how well he's doing. If he makes all his lessons like he should, it may be as you say."

"I'd be glad to." Noguchi-sensei said with a smile.

Uryuu was furious. So that was his father's plan. Commit him to this activity and then have the teacher spy on him! This was going to mess up a lot of his plans.

"Now that this is settled, can I go now?" He asked. He hated the whining tone in his voice.

"But your first lesson starts today my dear." Noguchi-sensei said.

"It does?" Uryuu replied.

"Yes." Noguchi-sensei said. "It's important that you start as early as you can. I want you to sit here on this bench at the back. Try to get a feel for the rhythm and watch how the dancers move. I'll give you list of things you'll need for next time, so you can participate with the class."

"I don't know." Uryuu said. If he left now, he might just be able to meet up with Nemu. "Can't I just come back tomorrow?"

"Not after I just paid for this."Ryuuken said ominously. Under his father's baleful glare, he did as he was told and sat on the bench.

"That's better." Ryuuken said with a satisfied smirk. "I'll see you at dinner time. Enjoy."

Taking his leave of Noguchi-sensei, Ryuuken walked out with the air of a man well pleased with himself.

Uryuu sighed. It looked like he was never going to see Nemu at this rate. He watched without seeing as the instructor put the other students through their paces. The music fell on deaf ears. Nemu still hadn't replied to his text. Maybe she was mad at him? Maybe she went home? He almost didn't recognize who was speaking to him.

"Excuse me." Nemu said. "I've just recently signed up for lessons here. May I sit next to you?"

A wide grin appeared on Uryuu's face. "Uh, sure." he said as he moved over.

"I'm Kurotsuchi Nemu by the way, stranger that I just now met." She said as she held her hand out. "I hope we can be friends."

Uryuu fought not to laugh at her clumsy subterfuge. "Me too." He said. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

That's how they were able to spend time together. Mayuri was being surprisingly cooperative in letting Nemu off for the afternoon lessons. He was being oddly nice to her. Maybe almost losing her made him realize how valuable she was? Maybe her ordeal made him realize how much he actually cared for her? Who could say?

Ryuuken, in the meantime was pleasantly surprised by the information he received from Noguchi-sensei. It seemed Uryuu's combat training carried over to dancing. He didn't need a lot of conditioning, being already flexible and strong and he learned the steps quickly. That wasn't so unusual. What did surprise him were the reports that his son seemed to be interested in a girl! He quickly partnered up with another new student and Noguchi-sensei said they were practically inseparable. Could it be his son was finally turning his back on the old ways and was becoming a normal teenager? He sincerely hoped so.

While it wasn't what he had planned, dancing lessons with Nemu was very enjoyable. Latin style dancing required a lot of physical contact with points added for chemistry and passion. It was obvious to all that the fiery looks and smoldering eyes between the young couple were not just an act. Nemu especially was very good. She never needed to be shown anything more than once. Noguchi-sensei repeatedly asked her where she had studied before and refused to believe she was self taught. With the way they picked up on the steps and never missed a practice together, Noguchi-sensei felt very confident they would do well in the next Karakura amateur competition. Not bad for less than three weeks of practice. Taking her advice, they agreed to give it a try. Ryuuken was dismayed to see his son sewing the dance costumes by hand, but consoled himself with the knowledge that at least he wasn't sewing more Quincy robes. Satisfied that Uryuu's new interest was genuine, he cut his punishment short so he would no longer be grounded on the day of the competition. He also started going back to his usual work hours. Upon hearing that Uryuu would be free that day, Nemu decided to take her first vacation ever to spend more time with him. She couldn't believe her good fortune when Mayuri approved it...

Now, as they walked through the rainy night under the streetlights, he couldn't help but feel it had all been worth it. Nemu seemed to be glowing under the lights of the shops and streetlights as she held the small trophy close. He shifted the umbrella a little to keep her dry.

"You earned that for us, you know." He said. "You carried my clumsy butt through the whole thing."

"Your butt is not clumsy!" She said, "You are very graceful."

He tried not to laugh at her phrasing. "I'm definitely not as skilled as you though." He pointed out.

"We needed more practice." Nemu said. "We'll do much better next time"

Uryuu though about his aching feet and winced inside. Dancing was a lot harder than it looked. He didn't want to think about a next time just yet.

"The night is still young." He said. "What do you want to do now?"

She put her head on his shoulder. "Nothing." She replied. "Everything is perfect right now. I don't want to change a single thing."

Her stomach chose that moment to rumble. Loudly.

"Was that you?" Uryuu asked. "All that dancing must have made you hungry."

Nemu was puzzled. "Yes." She said distractedly. "It must have."

With one hand, she absently rubbed her stomach. Now that she thought about it, she was ravenous. This seemed to be happening more often lately. For as long as she could remember, three light meals a day were more than enough. Nowadays, she seemed to be hungry all the time.

"We can stop and get a bite here." Uryuu said indicating a nearby convenience store, "Or we could find a restaurant."

"Here is fine." Nemu replied.

She found modern convenience stores fascinating. Besides fresh food delivered several times a day, you could pay your bills, book concert tickets or mail a letter. Some even boasted drop off laundry service. Most surprisingly, the shops were considered safe havens for victims of domestic abuse or street crimes. The clerks will watch over you in their safe, well lit store until the police arrive. All this service in 100 square meters.

They picked up a basket at the door and made their selection, moving down the aisles to get a bento and drinks. With uncharacteristic boldness, Uryuu picked up a box of condoms.

"What do you think?" He asked slyly. "Ryuuken said he'd be working very late tonight. We'll have the house to ourselves."

Indeed, since that night in Soul Society, they hadn't found anywhere private enough for more than a little kissing and petting in the few hours Nemu could visit for practice.  
Without a hint of embarrassment, Nemu put the box back on the shelf.

"That's not necessary." She said. "Gigais can't get pregnant."

"They can't?" Uryuu replied. "I guess you're right." He ran his hand along her arm. "I forgot this is just a fancy shell."

"This mimics a human body very nicely." Nemu said. "Still, for it to bear children would require extensive modification."

"That's good to know."Uryuu said. "We weren't exactly careful in Soul Society. We were lucky nothing happened."

Nemu didn't answer. She knew luck had nothing to do with it. With her body a storage locker of toxins and chemicals, pregnancy was out of the question. She didn't have the nerve to tell him. Reading up on human relationships in books and magazines, she knew fertility was a touchy issue between couples.

Turning her thoughts to her gigai, she held out her hand and looked at it as she turned it over and back. If she was going to visit the real world regularly, she should probably make a gigai to use on a day to day basis instead of renting one out from Urahara all the time. She was sure she was being ripped off. As far as she could tell, the only real difference between his basic model and this so-called improved, deluxe model was it didn't have "Shop at Urahara's" tattooed across the small of the back. She shelled out the extra money for the deluxe model for the competition. The costume Uryuu made for her was a stylish red dress with lots of ruffles and lace. As per usual for Latin dancing it was form fitting, low cut and reveled most of her back. She didn't want to embarrass him with Urahara's tasteless advertising.

They had their meals warmed at the register and ate them at a small booth in the corner. They talked about the competition, about the other dancers, both the good and the bad, about what they liked and what they may want to try next time. Finishing their meal, they put their coats back on and went out into the rain to end the evening at Uryuu's house. It had been weeks since they were able to have any private time together. With his father not expected back until late, they were determined to make tonight count. Heading for the train station, arm in arm under the umbrella, it felt like a perfect night. Too bad it didn't last.

* * *

"Did you feel that?" Nemu asked.

"I did." Uryuu replied. "Hollows. Lots of them"

The sudden appearance of many strong hollows caused a ripple in the background of Karakura's spiritual energy. It was almost impossible to ignore.

"I'm sensing at least two arrancar." Uryuu said. "I can't tell how many lesser hollows are with them."

"There's more than two." Nemu replied. "I can't tell exactly how many. I also can't sense the number of other kinds, except that it's a lot."

Even as Uryuu sought to distinguish their numbers, the hollows began to disperse. Others picked up on their presence. He could feel the reiatsu flare from Ichigo, Chad, Rukia and that one guy, what's his name? You know, the one with the afro? They were already leaping into battle. Still, they could probably use all the help they could get.

"We're going to have to respond to this." He said to Nemu.

She nodded. "I understand."

She pulled out a raven headed soul candy dispenser. Gulping down a pill, her soul reaper form was ejected from the gigai.

"Now Claudia, " She said, "Stay in this area and be very careful with this body. It's a rental"

"Right-o, Mum." The artificial soul said as it fired off a salute. "I'll be sure to take good care of it."

Uryuu and Nemu dashed off into the rain. He glanced back. It was weird how the body still looked like Nemu, but now seemed like a totally different person. The artificial soul inhabiting it cheerfully skipped down the street, whistling a happy tune as she headed towards a nearby bus shelter. He shook his head and focused on the matter at hand.

"They're splitting up again." Nemu said. "I'll take this group on the left. You take the right."

Uryuu frowned. He didn't like the idea of splitting up. "Are you sure?" He asked.

"Don't worry." She replied. "I'll retreat if I can't handle it. Will you do the same?"

The question caught Uryuu by surprise. Retreat was never something he considered when engaging an enemy. It made sense though.

"OK." He said. "If we run into something bad, we'll retreat and meet back at the park."

"Agreed" Nemu said. She took a sharp left hand turn.

Uryuu frowned again. In combat, Nemu seemed to take on a different personality, cold and calculating. Was it due to her shinigami training? It didn't really matter. The enemy was close at hand. He slowed down as he approached an alley. He could feel their presence. A man's voice babbled almost incoherently.

"Who are you? What do you want? Leave me alone!"

He peered around the corner. There were four of them. They had found the soul of a poor businessman and were preparing to devour him. The ghostly outlines of the man in his business suit were almost invisible in the dark and the rain as he swatted ineffectually at the soul eating monsters. Uryuu had seen enough.

"Excuse me gentlemen." He called out. "You appear to be lost." He activated his bow. "Allow me to show you the way to hell."

The reiatsu of the first three indicated they were powerful hollows, sentient and clever, much like the grand fisher. It didn't help them as he shot blue arrows right between their eyes. The last one dodged using sonido. It stopped moving under a doorway light. Uryuu was able to get a good look at it. It was an arrancar all right. Nowhere near as powerful as an espada, but bad news nonetheless. He stood two and a half meters tall with broad muscular shoulders. His cracked skull mask appeared to be a bear's, covering the top of his Head. His face was broad with a strong nose and firm jaw. There were scars all over his face.

"My, you're a big one." Uryuu told him. "Sorry, I don't have time to explain why you are going to lose."

As he drew his bow back, the arrancar pulled back his fist. It glowed bright red. Without speaking a word or uttering a sound, the creature fired off a barrage of bala, cero like energy balls arrancars could use like machine gun bullets. Uryuu had to dodge rapidly, using hirenkyaku to avoid the assault. The hollow was dangerous, but ultimately, doomed.

"I've got you right where I want you." Uryuu whispered as he prepared to release.

Just before he let fly, something exploded, knocking him off his feet. Hitting the ground roughly, he looked to see where the new attack was coming from. A figure silhouetted at the back of the alley was firing blue bolts of energy. They didn't seem to be aiming at him. The bolts seemed to be fired at the arrancar. The problem was this person's aim was lousy!

Bolts were going everywhere, striking the walls, the ground, practically anywhere but the hollow. The arrancar easily avoided the few that managed to strike near him and prepared to run for it. Uryuu tried to get on his feet, but there were too many bolts flying around to make it safe.

"Stop!" Uryuu shouted. "Knock it off!"

It was too late. He felt the reiatsu of the arrancar vanish as it retreated to Heuco Mundo. Worse, that idiot kept firing!

"I said stop dammit! It's already gone!" Uryuu yelled.

The figure at the end of the alley finally listened. They stopped firing.

Uryuu got to his feet and stalked over to where the person stood. As he got closer, he saw it was a small woman, her dark hair slicked down around her head by the rain, thick glasses spotted with raindrops. She stood under the downpour shivering, in fear or cold or from the adrenaline rush of combat he couldn't say. He also didn't care. He roughly seized her by the shoulders and began to shake her.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" He shouted in her face. "Were you trying to kill me? What were you thinking!"

"You're a quincy." She said as if dazed. "You're an actual quincy. "

Uryuu moved back confused. What did she say? She began to cry.

"I'm not alone anymore. I'm not the last one!"

Her words began to sink in past Uryuu's anger. Not the last one? Now that he could stop and think, those were quincy arrows she had fired. He grabbed her wrist and held it up. The flash of metal gleamed off a quincy cross.

"You're a quincy too?" He asked.

"I can't believe it." She said. "I found you. I'm not the last one!"

She threw her arms around Uryuu's neck and buried her face in his chest. Over and over she crooned, "Not the last one, not the last one."

Uryuu stood there flummoxed. Could this be true? Was this another survivor of the quincy tribe? She had shown quincy abilities. Her reiatsu felt like that of a quincy. It just didn't seem possible. Also he had no idea what to do with his hands. The natural thing would be to put his arms around her, but he didn't know this woman at all! Maybe he should pat her on the head?

"I got a few of them, but some got away." Nemu said as she appeared in the alleyway. She stopped in her tracks at what she saw.

"Uryyu." She said. "Who is this?"

He carefully pried the woman's arms away from his neck and stepped back. Moving aside so Nemu could see her, he gestured vaguely at his new acquaintance.

"Well. It seems I'm no longer the last quincy." He said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary:** We are introduced to the newest Quincy in Karakura. Meanwhile, Mayuri is working to figure out a way to poison Nemu's relationship.

"This is very old."Ryuuken said as he turned the pitted metal cross over in his palm.

"Yes sir. It was given to me by my last living relative. A great uncle. He died in the hospital." The young woman replied.

"Hmm." Ryuuken mused as he studied the small device. He glanced up at his son.

"Uryuu." Ryuuken said. "Instead of sitting there staring uselessly, why don't you make our guest some tea. She looks chilled to the bone."

He handed the pendant back to the girl. She immediately put it back on her wrist. Uryuu frowned, but did as he was told. She was soaking wet and did look cold. They had given her a blanket and a towel to wrap up her hair, but she still shivered. She looked shrunken and considerably less energetic than when they first met in the alley…

* * *

"Die shinigami!" the young woman screamed as she ignited her spirit bow.

"What the hell?" Uryuu yelped as he grabbed her wrist. He pulled her arm up so the bolt shot harmlessly into the sky.

"What did you do that for?" He demanded.

The woman's face was twisted with rage and hate. "She's a shinigami. A murderer. They kill Quincys on sight!"

"Not anymore. Besides, she is my friend." He grunted as he twisted her wrist. Through a little known, and up to that point unneeded Quincy technique, he forced her to extinguish her bow.  
"And since I'm the only one we know for sure is a Quincy, maybe you should start explaining yourself."

The woman looked back and forth from her wrist to Uryuu's face, clearly trying to figure out how he'd managed to disarm her.

"Huh?" She said.

"Explain yourself." Uryuu said slower. "Let's start with the basics. What's your name?"

"My name?" She said, clearly still confused.

"Yes. What's your name? Where do you come from?" Uryuu asked.

She seemed to gather her wits about her.

"I'm Reiko" she said. "Ijima Reiko. From Hakodate."

"You see, now we're getting along." Uryuu said. "I am Ishida Uryuu, Ijima-san, and this is Kurosutchi Nemu, a soul reaper and a friend."

Nemu bowed politely as she was introduced. Reiko returned it hurriedly, even a bit rudely, fear and distrust written all over her face.

"Um, excuse me." A voice said behind them. "Can I leave now?"

They all turned around to see the soul form of the dead businessman, still clutching the ghostly memory of a briefcase.

"My apologies, sir." Nemu said as she rummaged around in her sleeve. "Give me a moment to find my seal and I'll give you a soul burial."

"Soul Burial?" The man said in a panicky voice. "That sounds pretty final."

"It is." Nemu replied as she put a jade ring on her hand, the seal used to stamp the symbol for soul burial palm side down.

"Now…now wait a minute." The man said while backing up.

"Yes!" A new voice called out. "Wait a minute! Who are all you people and why are you constantly stealing my jobs! This is my beat!"

The group of four looked over to see a shinigami approaching from the end of the alley. He was of medium height and build, and was unremarkable in appearance with the exception of a huge, perfectly spherical afro.

"Hey," Uryuu exclaimed. "I've heard of you. You're that Kura, Kuru….um. Just a minute, it's on the tip of my tongue."

"Kurumadani! Zennosuke Kurumadani!" The shinigami shouted. "I am the only official shinigami for Karakura! Why don't I get any respect around here? And why are all you weirdoes able to see me?"

"More shinigami?" Reiko whimpered as she started backing up to the wall.

"It's all right." Uryuu insisted. "They're not here to kill you."

"I'll just be going." The businessman said as he tried to quietly slip past.

Nemu absentmindedly slapped the seal onto his forehead. His outline blurred and contracted as it transformed to the passing on stage to be carried away by a hell butterfly. Kurumadani watched in disgust at is fluttered past.

"Oh come on!" He groused. "Why do I bother getting out of bed in the morning if everybody keeps stealing my work?"

"Zennosuke Kurumadani." Nemu said coldly. "Is this how the thirteenth division teaches unseated shinigami to address their superiors?"

For the first time, Kurumadani took a good look at Nemu and noticed the lieutenant badge on her arm. His eyes grew wide and he quickly brought himself to attention before bowing low before her.

"Ah, so sorry ma'am. I didn't get a good look at you in this terrible weather. It'll never happen again." He babbled.

"Be sure that it doesn't." She coolly replied. "Attention to detail and diligence are key to rising up through the ranks. That is your goal, is it not Zennosuke Kurumadani?"

"Oh yes, ma'am." He blubbered. "I hope one day to be good enough to be awarded a seat."

"Then perhaps you should resume your patrol." Nemu hinted. "Or people will continue to do your job for you by getting there first."

"Of course ma'am! Of course!" he said with a rigid grin on his face as he backed out of the alley.

"Your advice and guidance are a great inspiration for one such as me. I'll be going now."

He bowed with every step, terrified and transfixed by Nemu's steady gaze. As he was walking backwards, he failed to notice a trash can behind him. He took the resulting fall in stride, rolling backwards after hitting the ground, still bowing and smiling like a maniac as he struggled to take his leave.

"I'm alright, ha, ha! Perfectly fine."He said although he started to limp.

"Goodnight everyone."He said as he reached the street entrance. "I'll just go back on patrol now. I'll um…bye!"

And with that, he vanished from sight.

"Strange guy." Uryuu said as they stared at the spot Kurumadani once stood. Reiko sneezed. Uryuu noticed that she actually looked a little blue. She probably needed to get to shelter quickly.

"You don't look too good." He said. "Why don't you let us walk you home?"

"I don't have a home." She said. "I just got here."

"Well we'll take you to your hotel then." He replied.

"I'm not staying at a hotel." She said. "I ran out of money. All I have is in this bag."

She pointed down to indicate a small duffel bag lying on the ground. She must have dropped it to free her hands to fight.

"Don't you know anyone here?" Uryuu asked. "Isn't there anyone you can call?"  
"No." Reiko answered. "I didn't plan that far ahead. All I knew was a possibility that there still might be Quincy in this town. I'm so glad the stories were true. I've been from town to town following old stories and rumors looking for Quincy survivors. This was as far as I was able to get. I just prayed that once I got here, I could find a way to get by."

She sneezed again. She began to shiver as the rain seemed to intensify. She really needed a place to go. Uryuu sighed.

"Tell you what Ijima-san." Uryuu said. "Why don't you come home with me?"

Reiko's face lit up with relief. "Really? You'll let me stay with you? Oh no, I couldn't impose."

"It's no imposition." Uryuu said. "Besides, I'm betting my father will want to take a good look at you."

He faced Nemu through the rain. Understanding passed between them without words. The evening they had planned was not going to happen.

"I'm sorry." Uryuu said. Nemu held up her hand to stop him from saying anymore.

"It's all right." She said. "We'll work something out tomorrow."

"Is everything safe now?" A woman's voice called out.

"Claudia," Nemu said. "I told you to wait where you were."

"Sorry Mum." The artificial soul said. "I thought you might want to pop back into this body now that the rotters have gone."

"Very well." Nemu said.

She walked over to where Claudia stood under her umbrella and merged back into the gigai. She swayed a bit as the body adjusted to the switch in operators. After a moment, her eyes fluttered open. She walked over to Reiko who visibly shrank away from her, shivering violently.

"I don't know what you were told about shinigami, Ijima-san." She said. "You may even be justified in fearing us. Speaking just for me, I hope we can be friends."

Nemu held out her hand. Under Uryuu's stern gaze, Reiko forced herself to reach forward and shake it. She still seemed frightened and disgusted. Nemu pretended not to notice.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" She asked Uryuu.

"You bet." He replied with a smile. It was with some regret he watched as Nemu walked away, disappearing in the rain and gloom…

* * *

"Thank you." Reiko said as Uryuu set a steaming cup of tea before her. She wrapped her hands around the cup, allowing the heat from the scalding liquid to warm them. After a few moments, she picked up the cup and after blowing on the tea a couple of times to cool it, took an appreciative sip.

"I have to admit, I'm a little surprised." Ryuuken said. "While it's not impossible for there to be more Quincy survivors in the world, I honestly didn't expect to meet any."

"I've been looking ever since I graduated high school." She replied. "As far as I know, I was the only one on Hokkaido. "

"You say you had an uncle. What about the rest of your family?" He asked.

"My parents died when I was very young." She said. "I'm not sure how it happened. All I was told at the orphanage was they died at the same time. I suppose it was a car accident."

Or a certain mad scientist, Uryuu thought as he adjusted his glasses. He kept his suspicions to himself.

"Growing up, I didn't feel any different from anyone else." She continued. "It was when I turned ten that I started to see them."

"Them?" Uryuu prompted.

"Spirits. People's ghosts." Reiko said. "At first it was just vague shapes. Low noises. After a while, I began to see them more clearly. I tried to tell people, but no one believed me."

She had Uryuu's sympathy there. He remembered himself how it had been when his powers first started to manifest. Unlike this girl, he had his father and grandfather to explain what was happening.

"After a while, I stopped telling people. Ghosts don't really trouble anyone and after I while I learned to ignore them. Then I started seeing the other things. The hollows." She shuddered at the memory from those times. She took another sip of her tea and stared into the cup.

"Their screams were awful when they hunted. I wanted to curl up in a ball whenever I heard it. Seeing them was worse." She looked up from her tea.

"One day, I was watching one as it devoured a soul it had just captured. I had seen it before. It was always bad watching a poor soul torn to shreds right in front of you and you can't do anything about it. But this time was different. It saw me. It knew I was watching it. It knew I could see it. Then it came for me."

"How did you escape?" Uryuu asked.

"I don't know." She said. "I just ran. Ran and hid. In my mind, I tried to disappear."

Probably suppressed her reiatsu instinctively, Uryuu thought. Like a baby duck hiding in tall grass.

"After that, whenever I saw one of those things, I ran." She gave a rueful smile. "You can only do that so many times before people think there's something wrong with you."

"You must have found some way to cope." Ryuuken said.

She shook her head. "No. I didn't. I stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. I was disciplined time and again by the matrons telling me to stop lying, stop causing trouble for the orphanage. One day, after I ran from my classroom screaming about monsters they sent me to a hospital. A sanitarium. That's when the drugs started. They couldn't understand that it just made things worse. I could still see them. Bars and walls couldn't keep them out. My only defense was the patients around me."

She looked down at her tea again. What came out next was barely audible.

"They were easier prey." She whispered.

She took a long drink.

"You spoke of an Uncle?" Ryuuken asked.

Reiko's face brightened a little. "Yes. My great uncle Nori." She said. "The hospital located him while they were cross-referencing my blood type. I was fourteen by then. I think he was almost a surprised as I was. He was a sick man by then and didn't have long. He visited as often as he could. It was he who told me what I was and why I could see those things."

"So that's how you learned you were a quincy?" Uryuu said.

She nodded. "He told me as much as he could remember. The quincy tradition had been dying as our numbers dwindled. He didn't remember much of our heritage. Most of it had been forgotten before it could be passed on. But he did give me this." She held up the old cross hanging from her wrist.  
"And he showed me how to use it."

Uryuu sniffed. "He didn't teach you very well." He said.

"No, he didn't." She said with her eyes downcast. "I was just able to form a bow and shoot when he died."

There was an awkward pause. Ryuuken glared as his son for his faux pas.

"I'm sorry." Uryuu said.

"It's alright." She said. "I don't know what you must think of me with my poor skills. I know I still have much to learn."

"You are gracious indeed to my rude son." Ryuuken said. "What happened after your uncle died?"

"I got out of the hospital." She replied. "I wasn't afraid anymore. I knew I wasn't crazy. I had a means to protect myself. And one other thing. He told me that there were others like me. He had a list of towns and provinces he thought might have quincys still alive. He'd been combing through newspapers and gathering old stories all of his life looking for clues that would tell him where a quincy might be. He planned to spend his retirement seeking them out. Then he got too sick. He passed it all on to me. When I got out, I took part time jobs after school. I saved up every yen I could. Once I graduated, I took off for the first city on his list. I decided to spend the rest of my life honoring my uncle by fulfilling his dream to find the remaining quincys."

"Then you have a long way still to go." Ryuuken said. "While there may still be survivors elsewhere, we in Karakura have chosen to let the quincy legacy die."

"No we haven't." Uryuu said.

"Yes we have." Ryuuken said.

"No we haven't." Uryuu said louder.

"Yes, we have." Ryuuken said more emphatically as he looked at Uryuu.

"No we haven't!" Uryuu said even louder.

"Yes we have. Shut up." Ryuuken said in a way that shut down the whole argument. He turned to Reiko.

"With the late hour and bad weather, I would be negligent if I didn't insist you stay the night." He said as if the argument never happened. "Uryuu will see you to the guest room."

She finished her tea, put the cup down and got up from the table. She took the blanket off from around her shoulders and neatly folded it before putting it down on the chair. She bowed to Ryuuken.

"My thanks Ishida-san." She said as she adjusted her glasses. "I don't know how I can repay you."

Ryuuken merely nodded politely in return. Uryuu got up to show her the way to her room.

"This way." He said indicating the staircase. "It's upstairs."

"Thank you." She said as she started towards the stairs. She stopped and turned back around. "This has really been a great day for me. Not only have I found out that the quincy are still alive, I actually saw my first soul reaper today!"

With that said she turned on her heel and, scooping up her duffel bag, went lightheartedly up the stairs. Uryuu hurried after her, but it was too late.

"Uryuu." Ryuuken called after him. "What does she mean by seeing soul reapers?"

His heart pounded in his chest. Ordinarily, he could care less what his father thought about his association with soul reapers. Ryuuken might call him an idiot for allowing the members of soul society for getting him involved in their messes, but it was his life, not his father's. It was his decision to get involved.

No, what he worried about was Nemu. He wasn't ready yet to approach his father with their relationship. About how he felt about her. So what was he going to say?

"A lot of them responded to the hollow invasion. " He improvised. "You must have felt it?"

"That is true." Ryuuken said. "It would have been difficult not to notice."

"The town shinigami showed up after it was all over." Uryuu continued. "Kurama-something-or-another. He was pretty upset we let the arrancar get away."

Well, it wasn't a lie, even if it wasn't the whole truth. Ryuuken stared very hard at him for what seemed like a solid hour.

"Very well." He said. "See to our guest and make sure she's comfortable."

With an internal sigh of relief, Uryuu resumed his climb upstairs.

* * *

Urahara pulled down the shutters in front of the store as he went about his nightly closing ritual. The receipts were counted up and locked away in the safe. Jinta had swept and mopped the floor. Tessai was bringing up inventory from the back to re-stock the shelves. All was in order.

He went to the back room where he kept his "other" inventory. The secrets of how he obtained goods to and from Soul Society would probably give the Gotei 13 fits, but a good businessman always found ways to keep his customers happy. He pulled a clipboard off the wall and went down the shelves, checking the manifest and making sure it matched the items delivered. Satisfied, he put the clipboard back on the wall and went to the workbench at the end of the room. He frowned in puzzlement at what he found.

"Ururu." He called. "Can you come here?"

He could hear her running down the hall. Soon the sad faced girl jogged into the room, worry written large on her face.

"Yes sir. What can I do for you?" She said.

"Ururu, did you accept the return on this gigai?" He asked. "It's missing the right hand."

"I tried to tell her not to take it." She said looking as though she were about to cry. "I even told her she would forfeit her damage deposit. She said she didn't care. I'm so sorry!"

"There, there." He said as he made comforting gestures. "It's not your fault. Why don't you go and take your bath now."

"Yes sir." She said as she bowed. She left quickly, still a little embarrassed by allowing a customer to damage a valuable gigai.

Urahara rubbed his chin as he held the stump on the mutilated artificial body. Now why would Lieutenant Kurotsuchi want to keep her gigai's right hand?

* * *

Nemu had hoped to sneak into the lab unnoticed. No such luck.

Her father was having another of his marathon research sessions. When Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri stayed up all night working on a problem, everyone else did too. You definitely wanted to be perceived as useful. Those who didn't usually ended up as guinea pigs, knowingly or not. She could hear him yelling as she tiptoed to the door.

"No, no, no, you fools! Do I have to do everything myself?" He shouted.

She peeked inside the lab. His back was turned away as he scrawled formulae across a chalkboard. Akon, Hiyosu and Rin watched as their captain illustrated his point. Nemu figured she wouldn't get a better chance to get to the analysis lab undetected. Suppressing her reiatsu, she began to sneak across behind them.

"So you see, you simply add the numbers from Sample A, subtract the numbers from Sample B, plug them in to this formula and divide by zero!" He lectured. "Now was that so hard?"

He turned around at exactly the wrong moment.

"Nemu?" He said. "What are you doing here? And why are you carrying a hand?"

She was right in the middle of the room with nowhere to hide.

"My apologies Mayuri-sama." She said. "I merely wanted to borrow the analysis lab."

Mayuri glanced around at his assistants.

"Get back to work." he snapped. He approached Nemu with his arms outstretched.

"Nemu," He said in a strange tone of voice, "What's the good of my giving you vacation time if you're just going to keep showing up here?"

Nemu bowed low as she apologized. "I'm sorry Maryuri-sama. I did not mean to disrupt your work."

Mayuri clasped her shoulders with both hands. "Silly girl. That was a joke. I'm just happy to see you."

Nemu jumped a little bit when he touched her. He'd been doing that a lot lately. She realized he'd been making an effort to change and was trying to have more of a normal father-daughter relationship with her. Still, as she looked into his crazily grinning face, the overall effect was…creepy.

"You're looking well." He said. He squinted a bit as he took a closer look at her. "In fact, you seem to have a bit of a glow about you."

Nemu looked down at her hands. She didn't see anything glowing. What was he talking about?

"So you say you need to find out something about that hand?" Mayuri asked as he took her arm and led her towards the analysis lab. "It looks like you tore it off a gigai."

"You are very perceptive Mayuri-sama." Nemu said as she tried to discretely pull away. "There is residue on the hand I wish to analyze."  
"Here we are." Mayuri said as they arrived at the laboratory door. He let go of her arm. "I have a few things I need to finish up, so I'll be back at the main lab. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything."

Nemu tried not to stare at him as he continued to smile at her. Probably no one else could have recognized it since his teeth were visible at all times anyway, but to her, it was like watching the sun come up in the west. It was just unnatural.

"Uh, yes Mayuri-sama. I'll be sure to do that." She muttered.

"OK. Have fun!" He said as he left, waving what passed for him as a cheery goodbye.

She watched as he walked down the hall. Really, what had gotten into him lately?

* * *

Entering the lab, it didn't take her long to bring the machinery she needed online. Typing in a command, the machine extruded a small glass box. She placed the hand inside and pushed a button. The box retracted back into the machine.

Nemu began to type in the parameters of what she was looking for. Before she was halfway through, a wave of dizziness hit her. She looked around the room and found a wheeled stool. Sitting down, she needed a moment for the dizzy spell to pass. As it went away, it left fatigue in its place. What was wrong with her these days? She just didn't feel like her normal self. Was she really coming down with something? She shook it off and went back to work.

She typed in the instructions to ignore all spiritron particles normally associated with gigai manufacture. What was left over would be the basis of the analysis. It took some time as the machine compiled the results. Nemu waited patiently despite her weariness and a touch of nausea.

The final result when it popped up was both recognizable and familiar. She pulled up some archived examples from the database for comparison. There was no denying what she saw. With only a few variables that could be unique to the individual, the cells that had been on the hand were all baseline quincy normal. Ijima Reiko had been telling the truth. She was a quincy.

"What have we here?" Mayuri said in a jovial tone as he threw his arm around Nemu's shoulders. "Are you looking over old case files?"

Nemu jumped in surprise. She hadn't noticed him entering the lab. She needed a second or two to gather her wits.

"This is a new sample, Mayuri-sama." She said as soon as she was able. "I encountered a strange woman last night who said she was a quincy. I wasn't sure that was possible. I thought the Ishida family was the last."

Mayuri's face reverted to his usual look when presented with a problem as he looked over the data on display. He took hand off Nemu's shoulder and stroked his chin.

"It's entirely possible there may still be pockets here and there." He said. "I stopped looked for them after we dissected that scruffy old man."

Nemu flinched inside as he mentioned their last victim. It still bothered her that she had played a role in Ishida Souken's painful, gruesome demise. Mayuri didn't notice her discomfort.

"I didn't see any point in studying the race after that." He said. "That old wreck was supposed to be the last of their elite class. Humph. He didn't impress me as anything special." He took a closer look at the data readout.

"I see a few variables here, but nothing too unusual. Was there anything particular about this individual that was bothering you?" He asked.

Nemu got up from her stool.

"No Mayuri-sama. I was just curious to see if her claim was true." She moved towards the exit.

"If you will pardon me Mayuri-sama, I don't feel well. I'm going back to my room to lie down."

"What?" he said, "Don't feel well? You're not designed to get sick. How can you not be…uh...I mean... yes, go lie down if you are feeling poorly my dear. You are on vacation after all."

Nemu stared at him. He was really acting strange. For a second there he had reacted like he normally would, but then that odd turn around. If anything he was smiling even wider than before. With a polite bow, she took her leave, completely bewildered.

* * *

Mayuri rubbed his hands in glee as his daughter left the room. It was working! Already he could feel their bonds of love and trust building as his plan unfolded. His kind behavior was clearly affecting Nemu who no doubt trusted him more than ever. It would soon be easy to use that trust to manipulate her feelings. And what luck! A female quincy had appeared.

This should make breaking up Nemu and that spectacled twit easy. Even if the new girl didn't like the scrawny fool, and why would she, it didn't matter. A rumor brought up here, a suspicion voiced in Nemu's presence there and, if his research was correct, they'd soon be at each other's throats with jealousy and anger! Then, with Nemu's heart broken and her faith in others destroyed, maybe he could finally get some work done around here. She would go back to worrying about truly important things like science and research instead of mooning over that limp haired buffoon. Honestly, what did she see in him?

He allowed Nemu the regular time off she requested to actually meet with the fool and what did they spend their time doing? Dance lessons. It wasn't easy spying on them. She actually thought he didn't know she was sneaking out to see the boy and was taking precautions to cover her tracks. He couldn't risk putting spy bacteria on either of them. Nemu would spot it immediately. That's didn't stop him from putting a few hidden cameras here and there. Being passive in nature and using hardly any spirit energy, neither Nemu nor the boy spotted them.

It didn't take long to work out their pattern. Several times a week they'd meet at that little spot by the waterfall, walk hand in hand into town and spend the next hour or so at dance lessons. It had been almost a solid month and the fool never tried to take her home or even to one of the numerous pay-by-the-hour hotels. Was it even necessary for him to be concerned? Seriously, between this and the sewing, maybe the boy's only interest in Nemu was someone he could talk to about dress patterns.

Well it didn't matter how the boy thought about women. The important thing was how Nemu thought about him. And with this new piece of knowledge on file, he now had a powerful tool for to turn those thoughts around. He chuckled as he went over in his mind the different ways he was going to tear Nemu's heart to pieces with this knowledge and started to shut off the analysis equipment.

As a matter of habit, he saved the data on the girl called Ijima Reiko. It looked like she was a normal, low level quincy, but it was not in his nature to ever throw data away. He routed it for further investigation for one of the lower seated staff. It would be good training for oh, say Rin. He labeled it priority "C". With the machine shut down, he turned to leave the room.

"Oh Nemu, how's that new quincy girl settling in to Karakura?" He practiced aloud. "Has she already met that one boy? I forgot his name."

With a low pitched laugh, he turned off the light and closed the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary: **Reiko settles in to the Ishida household as the arrancars move forward with their plot.

"This is not what we were promised." A short but powerfully built arrancar said as a lesser hollow bandaged his arm.

The wind howled around the jagged rocks blowing sand across the ground under Hueco Mundo's eternal night. Their small band huddled in the lee of the stones, trying to find a small measure of comfort. There had been many more of them before their raid on Karakura. The survivors had their faith badly shaken by the loss.

"The leader said we would find good feeding and gain power." It continued. "I never saw anything like the human who faced us, Nergal. He smashed us like insects. I broke my arm trying to block his fist. I barely made it back."

His companion was a tall, thin arrancar with a snake's jawbone for a mask. "Watch what you say, Sumuqan. Someone may question your loyalty."

"What good is loyalty if I'm dead?" Sumuqan asked. "I joined up with this faction for power! When are we going to get what we were promised?"

"Don't let me stop you from leaving if you're unhappy with us, Sumuqan." A deep voice rumbled.

The wounded arrancar twisted to look up at the huge arrancar with the bear skull mask. He prostrated himself on the ground before him. The rest of the band did so as well.

"Lord Sargon." Sumuqan said, all traces of anger and impatience carefully suppressed. "Please forgive me. I meant no disrespect."

Sargon looked down at the groveling creature. He was under no illusions as to his minion's true loyalty. He was a hollow. It was expected he would be looking for any advantage to get ahead. Sargon knew he would be stabbed in the back and replaced at the slightest sign of weakness. He should kill Sumuqan right now as an example to the others. Looking over the rest of his pitiful band, he knew he couldn't afford it.

He settled for kicking the disgruntled henchman in the face. As Sumuqan hit the ground on his back, Sargon stepped on his chest using it as a platform.

"Listen up, all of you!" he shouted. "I know you're all upset at the reception we received in the real world. There were more shinigami than any of us had ever seen. There were humans with unusual powers that killed off a lot of our comrades. We got our asses handed to us. So what? Nothing has changed. That which we need is still in that town somewhere. Once it's in our hands, we will become strong. Many will flock to our banner, making us even stronger. It's only a matter of time until all of Hueco Mundo is ours. If we find the secret."

"How can we search with all the dangerous enemies there?" one of them demanded.

Sargon glared at the questioner. He was in danger of losing control. He had to regain their confidence to keep the group together. He could feel Sumuqan squirming under his boots.

"We will move cautiously." He said. "Suppress your reiatsu. Disguise yourselves whenever possible. Feed lightly and only on those who won't be missed. For now, stay here and heal your wounds."

He stepped off the furious Sumuqan, grinding his heels as he did so. He was going to have to deal with Sumuqan's attitude sooner or later. It would have to be later.

"Nergal," he commanded, "get a few of our most trusted followers together. I found a lead."

* * *

Ryuuken and Uryuu were already deep into their morning routine of saying absolutely nothing to each other when Reiko entered the dining room.

"Good morning." She said shyly as she approached the table.

She looked a lot better rested and dry, her glossy, shoulder length black hair tucked behind her ears. Both men rose from their seats.

"Good morning." Ryuuken replied. "I trust you slept well?"

"Yes." She said as she took her seat. "Thank you again for letting me stay."

"Think nothing of it." He said as he returned to his paper. "It would have been unseemly to turn you away on such a stormy night, especially as my son had already said you could stay. Without consulting me first."

Uryuu ignored the dig and tried to change the subject.

"That's a lovely dress you have on." He said to Reiko. She was wearing a rather modest sun dress in blue gingham.

She glanced down at her dress. "You like it? I made it myself."

"Really?" Uryuu said with interest.

"Well, the cloth is obviously regular cotton print stock, and used a sewing machine for the long seams, but I did a lot of hand sewing on the trim." She said.

"I can see that." Uryuu said as he leaned in closer. "The hook and eye arrangement at the waist is purely ornamental isn't it?"

"Of course." She said. "The actual fastener is a conventional zipper in the back. I try to avoid buttons whenever possible."

"Me too." Uryuu said. "They're so annoying, even though you can't get around using them some of the time."

"Tell me about it." She said. "If I could, I'd use zippers for everything. For this dress, I wanted something to make it a bit less plain, that's why I used to the hook and eyes to create a cinching effect in the front."

"And that's why you put it over a plain white background?" He asked.

"Yes, exactly!" She exclaimed.

Her face beamed with pride and happiness as she discussed the finer points of her creation. She seemed very different from the timid girl of last night.

Ryuuken sighed behind his newspaper. There was no way he was going to be able to ignore their conversation and finish his reading. He folded his paper and put it away.

"So what are you plans now, Ijima-san?"He asked interrupting their intense conversation on fabric styles.

Reiko seemed to shrink back into herself as she remembered where she was and her status as a guest.

"I'm not sure." She said quietly. "Finding more Quincy was my only goal. I've traveled so much finding nothing. I was beginning to lose hope. Even so, I didn't think about what I would do once I found living quincys."

"What you should do is forget about the Quincy and lead a normal life" Ryuuken advised.

"How is it not normal to use the gifts she was born with?"Uryuu testily interjected.

"Those 'gifts' are no longer required in this world." Ruuken replied. "The time of the Quincy is over."

"Or maybe it's time for the Quincy to find a new way to fit in with the world." Uryuu shot back.

"Even if that were so, you still can't make a living at it." With Uryuu's face turning red, he turned back to Reiko. "Do you have any plans for today?"

"Yes sir." She said. "I plan to look for work. I still have a few places on my list to check. Or I may decide to stop looking and figure out where to go from here. Either way, I'm going to need money. I will also find a place to stay. I can check with the local charities to see where I can go for tonight."

Uryuu and Ryuuken looked at each other. They both adjusted their glasses. It didn't take long for them to reach a mutual, unspoken agreement.

"That won't be necessary." Ryuuken said.

"You can stay here while you look for work."Uryuu finished.

"Oh, I couldn't." Reiko protested. "You've already done enough for me."

"It's just until you can afford a proper home." Ruuken said. "You will be more successful finding work with a permanent address. We can find you a place after you are employed."

"We're happy to have you here." Uryuu said. "It's the least we can do for a fellow Quincy."

Reiko flushed and smiled as she bowed her head. Tears of gratitude formed in her eyes.

"Thank you so much. I…I mean, I, uh…" She had to stop as her voice began to quaver.

Ryuuken stood up. "Since that's settled, I have to get to work." He finished his coffee and picked up his dirty dishes. "Don't wait up for me Uryuu. I expect to get home late tonight. Ijima-san, I wish you luck on your job hunt. I will see you both tomorrow."

With that, he left through the kitchen dropping the dishes in the sink on the way out.

Uryuu turned to his guest. "You're not eating anything. Help yourself while I get you some coffee."

"Please don't trouble yourself for me." She said.

"Nonsense." Uryuu replied as he poured out a cup. "You're our guest."

Reiko's eyes welled up again in gratitude. "Thank you" was all she could force out.

Uryuu left her alone as she filled her plate and started eating. He believed he understood. She was overwhelmed and needed a little time to deal with it all. He let her eat in peace. After a while, she settled down enough to talk.

"I don't mean to sound rude Ishida-san," she said, "but your father doesn't seem to like being a Quincy. Why does he insist the quincy should be no more?"

"He has his reasons." Uryuu replied with a frown. "He says there's no point in being a Quincy these days. That we're not needed with the shinigami around and there's no profit in it."

The last words were heavy with disgust at his father's attitude.

"I don't understand." Reiko said. "Why did he teach you if he doesn't believe in the old ways?"

Uryuu adjusted his glasses. "He didn't. My grandfather taught me. He believed differently than my father. He felt Quincy's still had an important role to serve in this world. He's the one I model myself after."

Reiko smiled. "I'd like to meet your grandfather. Does he live nearby?"

Uryuu's face clouded over. "No. He died some time ago. Hollows killed him."

And not just hollows. Unbidden, the memory of Captain Kurotsuchi waving that obscene picture under his nose rose in his mind. Someday, he was going to have to deal with him. In a way, whether he sought him out or not, it felt inevitable he would face down the mad scientist again.

"I'm so sorry." Reiko said. "I didn't know."

Uryuu forced a wan smile on his face. "Of course not." He said. "How could you have known? Don't worry about it."

"I've upset you." She said as she bowed her head, shrinking into herself again.

"Seriously, don't worry about it." Uryuu insisted. "I hold on to those memories whenever I feel down. We did have a lot of good times together."

Reiko slowly but visibly relaxed. "Really? Like what?"

Uryuu leaned back as he thought about happier times. "Well, there's the Quincy training of course. But there's a lot of other stuff too. I could talk to him about anything. He would help me with my schoolwork. We would go fishing. He taught me how to sew and how to cook. I can still taste my favorite. Mackerel miso stew. You know, even knowing the recipe, I can never get it to taste the same as grandfather's"

"It sounds like he was a great guy."Reiko said.

"He was." Uryuu said. "I still have a lot of his stuff. His books and journals were a big help in continuing my training."

Reiko sat up very straight at this bit of news. "He left you artifacts? And manuals? Can I see them?"

"Of course." He replied. "Just as soon as you finish eating and we wash the dishes.

Reiko gave the widest smile he'd seen from her yet and began to eat as fast as she could and still be polite.

* * *

He was definitely putting in the overtime this month, thought Zennosuke Kurumadani.

After last night's patrol, he'd gone home for a late supper, then straight to bed. Now here he was, bright and early patrolling his beat once again. Didn't the higher ups know how frustrating it was to work in a town where everybody and their third cousin seemed to have some kind of power? How was he supposed to make it up the ranks if he never had a chance to kill any hollows? Not to mention his financial situation. Unseated shinigami didn't get paid much and hollow bounties were a huge supplement. He'd been meaning to ask out a cute little number from the ninth division for some time now, but there wasn't much he could do to impress her with just his basic pay.

Eager to claim a kill, he rejoiced as he saw a hollow on the street from his vantage point on the rooftop. It was a fairly large one with a deer skull mask. By its reiatsu, it was a strong hollow, probably worth a lot of bounty money. He scanned the area from side to side. No other shinigami nearby. No weird humans with powers. This was it! A hollow all to himself to terminate and claim. He could practically feel that ninth division girl in his arms as he drew his zampakuto. It struck him a little odd that the creature was just standing there. Normally hollows hunted or stalked something. No matter. A bounty was a bounty any way you got one!

Before he could move in for the attack, the area in front of the hollow blurred and warped. From the disturbance another hollow appeared. An arrancar! He was a huge creature with a bear's skull for a mask. He was keeping his reiatsu tightly suppressed, but Kurumadani could still feel the immense power leaking out. The shinigami ducked down. He was under no illusions about his power. There was no way he would be able to defeat an arrancar. He pulled out his phone, preparing to report the creature's position. What happened next made him hesitate. He watched in puzzlement as the hollow bowed down before the arrancar.

"Hail Sargon." The creature said. "I am prepared to fulfill my part of the bargain. If you are prepared to fulfill yours."

"If this information of yours gives me what I seek, I will admit you to our group." The one called Sargon rumbled.

"That is good," the hollow said nodding, "I wish to be among the strong. With order starting to rise from chaos, standing alone is dangerous."

"We will be the strongest." Sargon said, "What we seek will give us the edge."

"It might help if you told me what it is." The hollow hinted. "Is it a weapon? A spell?"

"Don't worry about what it is." Sargon said in a warning tone. "Just show me what we talked about. And remember what will happen if I am displeased."

"Of course lord Sargon." The hollow said. "It's right this way."

Kurumadani reminded himself to breath as he watched the creatures walk away. He quickly made a decision. He would follow them and find out what was going on, then report it to Soul Society. As soon as he was sure they would not be able to detect him, he got up and leaped to the next rooftop in the direction they had left.

* * *

"Who's this? Is this you?" Reiko asked as she held up a picture.

"Where did you find that?" Uryuu asked as he took it from her hand.

Curiosity turned to horror as he realized what he was looking at. It was a picture of him splashing around in a kiddy pool when he was three years old. Naked. Feeling his face turn red, he quickly put it face down on the coffee table.

"I found it in this box." She answered. "You were so cute!"

"Uh, well, uh, here's a scroll you may be interested in." He said as he quickly tried to change the subject. "It covers the family history when they arrived in Karakura."

Reiko was still looking through his grandfather's pictures. "Look, here's some more."

They had taken several boxes from the storage room downstairs to look through in the living room. It had been so long, Uryuu forgot about his childhood photos in the box. As he scrambled to think of some polite way to get the pictures away from her, the doorbell rang. He looked from where Reiko sat with a handful of pictures to the hallway leading to the front door, then back again several times. There was no helping it he supposed.

"I'll get it." He sighed.

Reiko continued to flip through the pictures, giggling occasionally. Looking back ruefully, he was unprepared when he opened the door.

"Surprise." Nemu said. Uyruu jumped a little

"Nemu! I wasn't expecting you." He said clutching his chest.

"I know. That is why it's a surprise." She responded. "I thought today would be nice for a picnic."

She held up a large wicker basket loaded down with food. Now that he had a moment, he saw she was wearing a large brimmed white hat with flowers in the band, an ankle length yellow dress and white canvas soft soled shoes.

"I rented this from Urahara's, so we have to get a full days use out of it."

"Sound great." Uryuu said. "Let me get my keys."

"Ishida-san, look! I found one of you on the toilet!" Reiko said laughing as she walked up holding a snapshot.

Nemu's eyes narrowed. "One of what?"

Reiko looked up surprised. "Oh, hello. Are you a friend of Uryuu's?"

The boy in question felt his heart thumping against his rib cage. He had totally forgotten about his house guest as soon as he saw Nemu. He scrambled to gather his wits before things got awkward.

"Ijima-san, this is Nemu. You met her last night." He said gesturing with his hands.

Reiko stepped closer, confusion on her face. "I don't understand. This person is human, not a shinigami."

"I'm in a gigai." Nemu explained.

"A gigai? What's that?" Reiko asked.

Nemu was taken aback. How did she not know what a gigai was? Was her training that incomplete?

Uryuu explained. "A gigai is a sort of false body. It lets soul reapers interact with the real world."

"Oh." Reiko marveled. "It looks so real." She reached out and pinched Nemu on the shoulder. "It even feels real."

Nemu frowned at the uninvited intimacy. She took a step back to get away from Reiko's hand.

"Are you coming in Nemu-san?" Reiko asked. She waved her handful of photos in the air with a naughty grin. "We've got naked pictures of Ishida-san to look at!"

Nemu's eyes locked on Uryuu's.

"Naked pictures?" She asked arching on eyebrow.

"It's not what you're thinking." He said as his face turned beet red.

"I can hardly wait for the explanation, although I can't see how that would change the facts." She said coldly.

"Ah ha ha." He laughed nervously. "Why don't I explain on our way out? Oh, I forgot." He turned to Reiko. "We're going on a picnic today, I expect we'll be gone until late afternoon."

"Oh, that's OK." Reiko said. "I really should start looking for work. I'll tidy up here, then go."

"That sounds good." Uryuu said with relief. He went to get the keys. "Here's the key to the front door. Here's my phone number just in case. And, here is some money for later."

"I can't take this," Reiko said trying to push the folded bills away. "You've already done so much."

"Consider it a loan." Uryuu said. "You're going to get hungry walking all over town, you're going to need to eat somewhere, you're going to need money for the train if nothing else. You can pay me back once you get a job."

Slowly, reluctantly, Reiko took the money. "Thank you, Ishida-san." She said with a smile. She turned to Nemu. "He's such a nice guy."

"Yes," Nemu said in a cold flat voice. "I'm aware of that."

While Nemu was relieved the girl would not be tagging along, she still felt…odd. She couldn't figure out why. The girl was being polite. She wasn't treating her like a threat or being insulting. So why did she feel just a little bit upset with her?

Uryuu checked the charge on his phone, then closed it with a snap. "We're all set. Good luck Ijima-san. We'll see you later."

"Thanks again, Ishida-san."She said with a polite bow. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. You two have a good time!"

Uryuu and Nemu waved until Reiko closed the door. Ever the gentleman, Uryuu carried the basket. Nemu put her arm in his and held him tight.

"Now about those naked pictures..." She said.

* * *

Kurumadani continued to follow as the hollows walked to their destination. Along the way, they were joined by first one, then another arrancar. All of them were carefully suppressing their reiatsu. One had a snake's jaw mask, the other insectoid, covering almost the entire face. After several blocks, they finally stopped in an alley behind a modest looking apartment building. There, they began to do something he couldn't see. He had to get in closer.

Dropping down to the street, he carefully approached the alley mouth. Ensuring he had adequate cover, he slowly peered around the corner. What he saw was like nothing he'd ever heard about at the academy.

"Information, old man." The one called Sargon snarled. "Tell us what you know."

To Kurumadani's astonishment, he saw the blurry form of demi-hollow, half-chained and half-merged to the building. It took the form of an old man wearing a knit cap and a cardigan. It whined piteously.

"I just wanted peace and quiet." It moaned. "Why does everyone have to play their music so loud? Why do those lousy kids upstairs have to be running around all the time? Don't they understand, I need my reeeeessstt!"

The last word came out as a drawn out, high pitched howl. His struggles pulled at the chain over his heart, tugging the hole open wider. The spirit was well on his way to becoming a full hollow.

"You will have your peace old man," Sargon said, "if you can answer our questions."

The spirit raised his head, a look of hope in his eyes. "Really?" It asked. "Even today, they still won't stop. Nobody listens to me anymore. They ignore me when I knock on the door. The landlady won't answer my calls. It's worse than ever."

The poor fool, Kurumadani thought. He doesn't realize he's dead.

Sargon leaned in closer. "Serve me well, and you will have peace old one. If they won't listen to you, I will give you the power to make them stop."

"Yes, yes!" The demi- hollow said "I will help you. I want to be able to stop them. I want power! Freedom!"

"Then listen well." The snake jawed arrancar said. "Souken Ishida. An old man like yourself. He had long hair and a mustache. Do you remember him?"

The ghostly figure slowly shook his head as he fought to recall. "Souken. Souken. Yes, I remember him. He was quiet. I thought he'd be a problem with his grandson always visiting, but the boy was quiet too. They were good people. Why did they have to go away? Why can't they all be considerate like that?"

"Never mind that!" The insect-like arrancar snapped. "Were you close? Did you spend a lot of time with him?"

"I would stop by for tea once in a while." The old man muttered. "I wouldn't call us close."

The arrancar looked at each other. They did not look happy.

"Did he tell you any secrets, old man?" Sargon demanded. "Did he have a place where he would hide something?"

"Hide something? What are you talking about?" the old man asked querulously. "I told you, I would stop by for tea once in a while. I didn't know him that well."

This really displeased the arrancar. As one they turned to the hollow who had led them there.

"I thought you said this old fool had valuable information?" Sargon growled.

"You were looking for information about the old Quincy, you said."The deer masked hollow said as it tried to back away. "He knew him when he was still alive."

"So what?" Said the bug faced arrancar. "He still knows nothing of importance."

"That's not my fault!" He yelped. He tried to turn and run, only to be sized from behind by the snake jawed one. He forced the quivering hollow to face Sargon.

"The rewards for aiding us are great." Sargon said as he held his hand up. He slowly brought it down to rest between the hollow's deer like antlers. "The punishment for failure is even greater."

A burning smell began to drift across the alleyway. Sargon's hand glowed red as he gathered the energies for a cero blast.

"Sargon, please! Give me another chance!" The hollow bleated as it felt its mask catch fire.

Sargon gave a predatory grin, replying with only one word. "Cero."

In a flash of red, the hollow was reduced to a pile of ash. Kurumadani cringed at the thought of his lost bounty. Well, maybe the girl wouldn't mind something cheap for a first date?

The arrancars formed a circle.

"Now what do we do?" The snake arrancar asked.

"This is a bit of a setback."' Sargon said. "Here's what we'll do now."

They huddled together while the big arrancar outlined his plan. Try as he might, Kurumadani couldn't hear what they said. After a few minutes, they broke their huddle.

"Let's go." Sargon ordered.

"Wait!" the demi-hollow cried. "What about me? You said you would give me power!"

"You were useless to me old man."Sargon sneered. "No doubt you were just as useless in life. You deserve your little slice of hell."

The arrancar began to blur as they departed.

"No! Come back!" The demi-hollow screamed. "Don't leave me here! You promised you'd help me! You'd free me! You promised! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHGGRRRHHHHH!"

The last scream was the most hollow-like yet. Kurumadani made a mental note to come back and deal with the restless spririt before it got much worse. Right after he reported what he saw. After taking three steps away from the wall, the air about him suddenly blurred as the three arrancar materialized around him. Sargon drew his zampakuto.

"You know," He said almost casually, "if you are going to be peeking around corners to spy on people, you might want to consider getting a haircut."

Following actions to words, the huge arrancar swept his blade six centimeters over Kurumadani's skull, cutting off a huge chunk of his beautifully coiffed, painstakingly cultivated afro.

"Oh, hell no!" Kurumadani raged as he stared at the lump of hair at his feet. "Nobody messes with the 'fro! Not even you tough guy!" He drew his zampakuto and called its name. "Good morning,...urk."

Kurumadani could not finish as one of the arrancar's zampakuto's was sticking out of his chest. As the blade withdrew, he tried to run, but his legs would not obey him. Even for such a terrible wound, he should be able to do something, but his limbs seemed to turn to ice. Soon it was getting hard to breathe. He fell over on his back.

"Nergal." Sargon ordered. "Check his phone. Make sure he didn't report us."

It didn't take long for the arrancar to do so.

"Looks like he didn't have time." He said. He crushed the device under his boot.

"Well shinigami," Sargon said "looks like you've run out of luck. If it means anything, you can take pride in knowing you fed the next rulers of Hueco Mundo."

The three arrancar closed in around his paralyzed body. This was it. He was doomed to be just another name on the causality list at HQ. His only regrets were he'd never know just how nice dating that ninth division honey would have been and that he would die with his hair in such terrible condition.

Suddenly, the arrancar were stopped. Kurumadani found himself surrounded by a glowing yellow shield.

"What's this?" The one called Nergal hissed.

"_Tsubaki. I reject!_"

A small object slammed into Nergal's face, breaking his mask and opening a nasty gash. He dropped to his knees and clutched at his face.

"Who did that!" the insect like arrancar demanded.

They turned to see a young girl holding her hands out while strange forms whirled above her head. She radiated great power. The large young man standing next to her was as least as strong. As they watched, a strange gauntlet formed on his right arm. He began to stride forward, purpose and determination showing strongly in his face.

"Sargon, what shall we do?" Nergal asked.

The big arrancar thought for a second. "Retreat." He ordered "We don't need to fight. Not yet."

Grabbing Nergal, they opened a portal back to Hueco Mundo and left.

Chad stood and watched. He pondered racing over using sonido and fighting them, but three to two were still bad odds when you didn't know your enemy. As the portal closed, he relaxed and let his powers subside. His arm returned to normal.

"Ayame, Shun'o, I reject!" Orhime called. The shield around Kurumadani quickly changed to a healing field. She walked closer to the downed shinigami to get a better look. Chad stood over her as she kneeled down.

"What's wrong with him?" He asked. "Will he be OK?"

"He's been badly wounded, but that's not all." The young girl said. "There's some kind of poison in him. I think I can heal him, but I'm not sure. I'd feel better if we could get him some help."

Chad nodded. He picked Kurumadani up. "Can you heal him while we're moving?" He asked.

She scratched her head. "Well I guess so." She said. "I've never tried before. Maybe if you don't go too fast?"

Chad didn't think that was a good idea. When getting people medical attention, speed was always a good. He had an idea.

"Why don't you get on my back?" he suggested.

"Get on your back?" Orihime said. "That sounds like a great idea! Oh wait, won't that be too much for you Sado-kun?"

Chad merely smiled and shook his head. Both of their weight combined wouldn't be enough to even slow him down.

"Well, if you're sure." She said. With a little effort, she was soon perched on Chad's broad muscular back, her arms wrapped around his neck. She looked down at Kurumadani in Chad's arms. He was still conscious, his eyes now able to move and his breathing easier. He still couldn't speak.

"Don't worry shinigami-san!" She chirped as she reassured the wounded man. "Well soon get you to, uh, hey Sado-kun, where are we going?"

"Urahara's" Chad supplied.

"Hey that's perfect! He'll know what to do. Off we go!" She cheered, pointing the way. Chad smiled and set off at his fastest pace.

* * *

Despite having a rough start to say the least, Uryuu and Nemu had a good time together. The weather had been perfect, neither too hot nor too cold. Fluffy clouds drifted across the sky as they ate their lunch on a blanket under a tree in the park. By the fountains, an acoustic band playing old favorites took requests, entertaining the small crowd while children scampered and played with their dogs on the thick green grass. People played Frisbee or flew kites, or just enjoyed each other's company as they walked under the bright sunshine. After they ate, Nemu rested in Uryuu's arms, watching it all, taking it all in, talking about everything and nothing. As the sun went down, they stopped for some ice cream on the way home, slowly eating their cones as they walked hand in hand, Uryuu carrying the basket, the street lights winking on one by one.

"I had a lovely time." Nemu said as they reached the front door.

"Well it doesn't need to stop now." He said with a grin putting the basket down. "Ryuuken said he's going to be working late."

Nemu looked quickly side to side as she blushed. "You don't mean?"

"Of course." He said as he put his arm around her waist. "It's been a long time. We've been good. I think we deserve it."

She began to laugh. "Perhaps a little later." She said pushing ineffectually against his chest. "It's almost dinner time."

"So? We'll order out." He countered. "Maybe we could even use it."

"What do you mean, 'use it'?" she asked with a puzzled smile.

He leaned in close and whispered in her ear the various ways food could be worked into love play. She put her hand over her mouth to suppress her giggling.

"Do you want to try it?" he pressed.

Nemu kept glancing from side to side, her feelings a mixture of embarrassment and excitement. This sounded so naughty. So bold. So interesting. Surely as a scientist, she should engage in a little experimentation? Who knows what the results might be? Making up her mind, she met Uryuu's eyes and gave a quick, but definite nod. Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled her close. Their lips met just as their eyes closed, wrapping their arms around each other as they enjoyed a long overdue kiss. It was not easy to disengage when the porch light came on. They leaped apart just in time.

"Ishida-san." Reiko said as she opened the door. "You're back. Ah, Nemu-san, did you have a good time?"

Uryuu could have kicked himself. He had forgotten all about his house guest. He tried to stammer out a reply as he worked to keep his hands from shaking. Almost getting caught like that had pumped his body full of adrenaline.

"Ijima-san." He sputtered. "Yes, we had a very nice day. In fact, we were just talking about ordering some food."

"No need for that." She said. "I've already made dinner. I think you're in for a pleasant surprise."

Not another surprise today, he thought. He wasn't sure his heart could take it.

"Why do you say that?" He weakly asked.

"I made your favorite, mackerel miso soup! You've got to try it." She crowed. She faced Nemu. "I made plenty for everyone if you're staying, Nemu-san."

"That's all right." Nemu said. "I'm feeling some indigestion at the moment."

That was actually true. She didn't want to bother Uryuu with it, but she had been feeling heartburn and indigestion since lunch. It might have been due to her eating all the pickles and salted food. She was craving the taste for some reason and her body was not responding well. Perhaps it was because of the cheap gigai she had rented. Urahara refused to rent her the deluxe model anymore.

"I think I'll go home now."

"Are you sure?" Uryuu asked. "It would be nice to have more guests for dinner."

Nemu looked into his eyes. She could see he felt bad about this. She considered staying for dinner, but suddenly, she felt a little nauseous.

"It's alright Uryuu." She said forcing herself to smile. "I'm going to go home and lie down for a while. Don't worry about me."

"If you're sure." He said.

"I'm sure." She reassured him. "You worry about entertaining your guest and enjoy your soup."

"I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked.

Her smile was more genuine this time. "Of course."

As they drew closer, they both realized they could not kiss goodbye in front of Reiko. Neither of their fathers would approve. If word got out they were a couple, there would be hell to pay. They finished with an awkward handshake. It was with some regret that she waved goodbye, this time the door closing on Reiko and Uryuu. As soon as the door closed, her heartburn got a lot worse.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary:** First, a glimpse of the past that may affect the future. In present day, Urahara asks Ichigo and Rukia to stakeout Souken's old apartment. Meanwhile, Ishida plans a quiet evening at home watching TV with Nemu.

200 years ago…

Ishida Kimiko's lungs burned as she struggled up the grassy hillside still damp with the morning's dew. The weight of her infant son seemed to be pulling her arms from her sockets. The small pack on her back pressed down, making her feel off balance. Gaining the top of the hill, she had no choice but to stop and try to catch her breath. She looked back at the small village she had fled. It was a farming town surrounded by rice paddies, the green shoots swaying in the light morning breeze, sunlight reflecting off the standing water. It was far away from any major city or port. It was a place the rest of the world forgot about as the people went about their daily lives following the cycle of the seasons, planting and harvesting. She had hoped it was far enough and remote enough for her to be forgotten too. No such luck.

She couldn't see them yet, but she felt them. The shinigami were moving from house to house. How had they managed to find her? There was no way of knowing. The only thing she knew for certain was the need to run. She unwrapped the blanket from her son's face to see if he was alright. Genpaku seemed to know instinctively that something was wrong. He stared at her, his eyes wide, not making a sound. That was good. She carefully replaced the blanket to protect his face making sure he could still breathe. Thing were going to get rough after they entered the woods. Taking one last look down the hill, she took a deep breath and headed towards the tree line. Was it her imagination, or had she seen a figure in black moving around down there? They were approaching this side of the village. They would know soon that she had gone. Heart pounding in her ears, she focused on gaining the shelter of the forest. The trees didn't seem to come any closer though she ran as fast as she could. She was only a few meters away when she slipped on the wet grass.

Twisting her body, she managed to land on her back protecting Genpaku, but knocking the breath from her body. She lay struggling to pull air into her lungs, feeling the shinigami drawing nearer every second. Regaining her feet, she was forced to take the time to restore the area where she had landed to a more normal state. It was bad enough she didn't have time to cover her tracks, she could at least be sure she didn't leave such a large and obvious sign of her passage behind. She took as much time as she felt was safe, picking up the grass stems and rearranging leaves. Anything she could do would help.

Struggling back to her feet, she picked up Genpaku and made her way into the forest. She had to find a place to hide. She walked as fast as she could, trying not to leave a trail. Soon she could no longer see the clearing behind her. Looking around, she saw an evergreen with branches touching the forest floor. Pushing her way through the needles, she found the area beneath the branches formed a conical space under the tree. She could barely see out. Putting her back to the trunk, she focused on her breathing and holding in her reiatsu. She had run as far as she could. Now her only chance lay in concealment.

A voice called out from the clearing. She couldn't make out what they said, but she could guess. They spotted her trail. Her efforts to hide the spot where she fell had failed. They now had a good idea of where to search. Concentrating on breathing slowly through her nose and exhaling quietly through her mouth, her hand unconsciously found its way to the cross on her wrist. She quickly shoved the thought of fighting the shinigami out of her mind. She had never been a great warrior. She wouldn't have a chance. Her husband, Eisuke, had been very powerful. He had stayed with the rest of the men in the clan to fight the shinigami and to give her and others like her the opportunity to find a place to hide. They did so knowing it was suicide. She hoped his death had been quick and painless. She could not let his sacrifice go for nothing. Their son had to live. The legacy of the Quincy had to survive.

A man's voice called out. "Sir, the Quincy came this way. I'm sure this is the right direction, but I've lost the trail in the underbrush."

"Everyone spread out." His superior said. "See if you can pick up any signs."

Kimiko's heart pounded in her chest even as she continued to practice the quincy technique of stillness. Breathe in slow, let it out quietly, mind still as a pond on a windless day. They could not detect what was not there. She tried to ignore the pulse of her heartbeat in her ears as she withdrew into herself, no longer tracking them by their energy signatures, preventing even the slightest leak of her own reiatsu. She followed them by ear as they moved farther and farther away. They had spread out in a fan and were soon moving past her hiding place. One by one, their steps grew fainter. They didn't see her. They were going away.

Just as she was about to risk probing outward with her powers, she heard one getting louder. It was coming back.

With a silent prayer, she held Genpaku closer.

Go away shinigami, she thought. There's no one here. I am a rock, I am a tree, I am nothing. There is no one here shinigami. Please go away.

None of her silent pleas made any difference. The shinigami came closer and closer, its footsteps louder and louder as it came straight for her hiding place. Kimiko struggled to control her fear as the shinigami came right up to the tree and stopped. She couldn't breathe as the shadowy figure on the other side of the branches slowly knelt down. When the shinigami pulled the branches away, she felt her heart stop. It was over. Her efforts had been futile. The shinigami facing her was a woman with long, dark hair in a thick braid. She stared deep into the woman's eyes as she clutched Genpaku tightly. She couldn't look away as she wondered what the woman was going to do to them.

"Unohana, did you find something?" her leader shouted from far ahead.

"No sir." The woman called back. "There's nothing here. I was mistaken." She let the branch fall back into place and stood up.

"Get back up here then." He replied. "We'll keep searching in this direction. The quincy couldn't have gotten far."

"Yes, sir." The woman called Unohana said as she casually walked away.

The sound of the hunting shinigami faded into the distance. Eventually, it disappeared. They were gone.

Keiko didn't know what to make of it. Was it a trick? Was she really going to be allowed to live? How was this possible? Trick or not, she had to take advantage of her opportunity.

She stayed under the tree for the rest of the day, long after she felt the last of the shinigami's presence. When Genpaku started to fuss, she fed him, ignoring her own hunger and thirst as she kept as still and quiet as possible. She listened as off in the distance, the little village awoke, went about its business, then prepared to go back to sleep. The sun began to sink on the horizon before she felt safe enough to move. She ate sparingly from the little food she had with her and drank most of her water. Genpaku had been so good through their ordeal. She changed and cleaned him as best she could, then wrapped him up for travel. She looked over the items in her pack once more. There had been little time to prepare. There was a little food, some spare clothes for her and the baby. Most importantly were the scrolls.

Eisuke had insisted she bring them with her no matter what. They contained the knowledge and teachings of the tribe. Their history, their techniques, all that she could reasonably carry about who they were and what it meant to be a quincy. So much had already been lost. She picked up a bronze tube. This was the most important scroll of all. Few quincys knew of its existence. Fewer still had the talent to use the knowledge it contained. Eisuke had been one of the few, one of the elite.

Tears squeezed past her tightly shut eyelids. She put the scroll back. There would be time to mourn when she knew she was safe. She had Genpaku to think about. She had to preserve the legacy of the quincy. She settled the pack as comfortably as she could across her shoulders. Picking up Genpaku, she forced herself to smile at his gurgling face. It gave her a good feeling when he smiled back. As long as one of them still lived, Eisuke's legacy would survive and the quincy would never die. She set off for the nearest road opposite where the shinigami had gone.

* * *

Reiko was so excited, she hardly finished swallowing her food before she talked. "I was amazed! I could hardly get to sleep last night. Knowing we were hunted down is one thing but to read a personal history like that made it feel so real. It's like I was there!"

Uryuu smiled with pride. His ancestors were pretty amazing. He had given Reiko a selection of the family history to read last night. Apparently, she had read through them all. Ryuuken wasn't eating breakfast with them. He took some toast on his way out the door, another overloaded day ahead of him. That made Uryuu Reiko's sole listener as she waxed enthusiastic over her new found heritage.

"Just think Ijima-san, your ancestors had to have gone through something similar to have survived." He pointed out. "It was a story that played out all over the world."

Reiko's face turned thoughtful as she took that in. "You're right." She said. "I wish even more that I knew my family history."

"In a way, you are learning it." Uryuu said as he adjusted his glasses. "The story of the Quincy is the story of your family. As long as we exist, you'll never be alone. You'll always have family."

Reiko blushed. She fiddled with her glasses as she glanced away. "Thank you Ishida-san. You don't know what that means to an orphan like me."

He didn't know how to respond to that. The silence began to feel awkward. He tried changing the subject.

"So, ah, I have to get to school. Did you have any plans today?" He asked.

"Well," she said, "I don't have to start my new job until this afternoon." Reiko had managed to find a job delivering Chinese takeout. "I'll be working four to ten tonight. I think I'll spend this morning apartment hunting."

"That sounds good." He replied.

"What about you?" She asked "Do you have any plan this evening Ishida-san?"

"No," he responded, "After the last couple of days, I'm just going to spend a quiet evening at home."

He already had it all planned out. After getting home, he would finish his homework, order a pizza and just spend the evening watching his favorite show, Burari Reijou Totsugeki no Tabi, starring Don Kanonji. He found the show very amusing, though for different reasons than Don Kanonji's regular audience. He hoped Nemu would like it too. A quiet evening alone, just the two of them. It would be great.

* * *

"This is just great." Ichigo complained. "I'm missing school for this?"

"Quiet you fool." Rukia hissed, removing the binoculars from her face. "This is a stakeout. No one can know you're here."

"But nothing's happening." He grumbled.

"Stakeouts are like that." She said. "You can go for days without seeing anything. The key to catching your prey in the act is to make sure they never know you're there. That's why you can't move or make a lot of noise."

Ichigo sighed. At least in his spirit form he didn't feel the effects of the sun beating down on him. They were lying on a rooftop watching the apartment building next door. The one Ishida's grandfather used to live in.

"This is so dull. Can't I at least use the binoculars?"

"No. Now shut up." She said without looking at him. She continued to watch the apartment in prone position propped up on her elbows. He thought back to how he got roped into this crazy mess…

* * *

"Kuchiki-san, Kurasaki-san, welcome! How are my two favorite customers today?"

Urahara had his usual suspicious looking smile on his face as he greeted them.

"Cut to the chase, hat-n-clogs." Ichigo said "Why did you call for us."

"Ichigo."Rukia whispered, "A little respect."

If the carrot topped boy's manners bothered the shopkeeper, he didn't let on.

"Tell me, how much do you two know about Ishida-san's grandfather?"

Ichigo scratched his head. "Ishida's grandfather? Not much. I know he wanted soul reapers and quincys to work together. Hollows killed him when Ishida was very young. Not much besides that."

Rukia nodded her head besides him. She knew even less than that.

"It would appear someone has taken an interest in him." Urahara said. "Last night, the town's shinigami was attacked by a team of arrancar."

"Inoue-chan mentioned something like that." Rukia said.

"Isn't that the guy with the weird hair?" Ichigo said scrunching his eyebrows. "Kuro…Kuru something-or-another."

Rukia sniffed. "Honestly Ichigo, it's not that hard. It's Kuruma… ah, Karada…"

"Zennosuke Kurumadani is currently healing up in the backroom." Urahara interrupted. "Thanks to your friend Orihime-san, he has made a quick recovery. Well at least physically."

"Physically?" Ichigo questioned. "They did something to his mind?"

"Sort of." Urahara said as he snapped open his fan. "You could say that."

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth when a bloodcurdling scream came from down the hall.

"Ahhhhh! No! NOOOOO!"

"Is that…?" Rukia began to ask.

Urahara gave a resigned sigh. "Yes, that is Zennosuke-san. We've been trying to calm him down for hours."

"Can we see him?" Ichigo asked.

Urahara frowned, holding his fan in front of his face. "I'd rather you didn't. Still, if you must I suppose a peek wouldn't hurt."

He led them down the hallway and stopped before a sliding door.

"I'm just going to open the door a crack and let you take a look. Please don't make any noise, it may upset him."

Suiting actions to words, he slowly pulled the door aside. Ichigo and Rukia put their eye up to the crack. What they saw made their blood run cold.

"No, no, this doesn't match my old hair at all!" Kurumadani cried as he pulled a blonde wig off his head. "It's the right shape, but the wrong color! I can't be seen like this!"

"We're doing the best we can Zennosuke-donno." Tessai rumbled apologetically. "Please, try this one."

Kurumadani took the wig offered and tried it on. "I look like a freak!" He said. He grabbed Tessai by the lapels. "Please! Can't you do something, anything to make my natural hair grow back?"

By turning to face Tessai, he made his damaged afro visible to the two young shinigami. As Ichigo took in the lopsided cut and the bald patch at the top of his head, he involuntarily gasped. He heard Rukia below him also breathe in sharply from the hideous sight. No doubt her jaw was open in shock as well.

Kurumadani whipped around. "What was that? Is someone there? PLEASE TELL ME NO ONE ELSE SAW ME LIKE THIS!"

Ichigo and Rukia, acting as one, slammed the door shut and put their backs against it as Kurumadani howled and wept with embarrassment.

"I warned you." Urahara reminded them.

"You were right." Ichigo said.

"Please forgive us." Rukia added. "I think I'll have trouble sleeping tonight."

Urahara turned to lead them to the sitting room. "Please follow me and I'll explain why I called you."

They entered just as Ururu was setting down cups of tea on the table.

"Will you be needing anything else, sir?" She asked.

"No Ururu. Please go up front and keep an eye on the shop." He said with a wave. "You say Orihime-san mentioned this to you already?"

Rukia took a sip of her tea, then set it down "She told me her and Chad chased off the arrancar and brought, Kura…. Kaura, whats-his-name here."

Urhara also took a long appreciative sip of his tea. He tilted his head back, eyes closed in satisfaction as he savored the taste. It had been a long night.

"From we have gathered from Zennosuke-san, the arrancar are here searching for something." He said. "Something from Ishida-san's grandfather. They were looking over his old apartment building when Zennosuke-san was attacked. "

"Do we know what they are looking for?" Ichigo asked.

"No, we didn't learn that." Urahara replied. "What we do know is that they didn't find it. That's why I need you. If they didn't find it the first time, they are sure to try again."

"You want us to watch the apartment building?" Rukia guessed.

"Exactly." Urahara exclaimed as he pointed his fan at her. "I have Jinta watching the building now. He is more than capable of reporting in if something happens, but he is not allowed to take action. Also, I do not like putting him in a position of risk alone."

"Why us though?" Ichigo asked "Since this involves Ishida's grandfather, why not have him check it out?"

"Ishida-san will be notified in due time." Urahara said from behind his fan. "Unfortunately, he doesn't have the ability to use a mod soul to keep up appearances. You can begin surveillance immediately without arousing suspicions."

* * *

Shows how much he knows, Ichigo thought as he lay on the roof. Chappy could pass for Rukia on a major caffeine buzz, but Kon? The last time he entrusted the mod soul to use his body, Rukia had to go around modifying the memories of half the girls in the school after he snuck into the girl's locker room. Who knows what crazy perverted things he was up to at this very moment?

"Ichigo. We have movement." Rukia murmured.

He snapped out of his daydreaming and focused on the apartment window. The new owners were a young professional couple with no children. They had been gone for hours. Looking closely, he could see there were shadows moving around inside.

"Geeze, they must be really suppressing their reiatsu. I can't feel them at all." He whispered. "Now what?"

"Now we let them alone for a few minutes to get comfortable." She said putting the binoculars away. "Then we'll surprise them by coming in through the window."

"The window," he repeated, "got it." He pulled Zangetsu off his back, preparing for battle.

"And remember," she warned, "We are to capture at least one for interrogation."

"Capture?" Ichigo looked at Zangetsu. "My powers aren't really suited for capturing hollows."

"Well if you learned a Kidou like I keep telling you to, you wouldn't have that problem." She scolded.

Ichigo scowled. "Pardon me! Not all of us spent six years at the oh-so-prestigious Shinigami Academy."

"Drop it." Rukia said. "It's time to move out."

She shunpo'ed into position, standing on the air just off to the right side of the window. Ichigo frowned. One of these days, that girl was going to go too far and then he'd…he'd…he'd take her over his knee and give her a good spanking, that's what! Yeah, that's what he'd do. With that settled in his mind, he moved into position on the left side of the window. Rukia started a countdown with her fingers. Three, two, one! As her last finger went down, they crashed into the room.

"Freeze!" Ichigo shouted.

There were two arrancar in the room, one heavey set and bull-like, one slim and insectoid. The hollows had already done considerable damage to the apartment. Drawers were pulled out with their contents scattered all over the floor. Holes had been made in the walls and ceiling. They had been caught totally flat footed. They dropped the items they had been holding. The one with bull like features inched his hand towards his zampakutos.

"Uh-uh" Ichigo warned. "We can both strike at a distance. You don't have a chance."

"With your off hand, remove your swords with you thumb and index finger only." Rukia ordered.

Sumuqan glanced over at his companion for guidance. "Anata?"

The arrancar's wasp like mask covered all but the lower jaw. Despite this, it was easy to see the disgust and contempt in the hollow's expression. "Just do it."

They both drew their swords out as directed, letting them fall with a clatter on the floor.

Rukia nodded towards the enemy. "Ichigo, I'll keep them covered. You put the restraints on them."

Ichigo did not lower his guard as he cautiously approached them. "You heard her you two, we're taking you in. I don't want any trouble with you."

"It's too late for that, shinigami" A voice behind him said.

Ichigo whirled around to see a tall, lanky arrancar with a snake's jawbone mask holding its sword tightly against Rukia's throat.

"Why you…" Ichigo snarled as he started towards him.

"Don't even think about it, shinigami." Nergal taunted as he brought Rukia to her toes by pulling his blade upwards. "One false move and I slice her head off. Now drop your zampakuto."

Ichigo's teeth were bared in rage, but he did as he was told. Zangetsu hit the floor with a heavy clatter.

"You too, girly." Nergal hissed in Rukia's ear.

"What?" she said as she slowly lifted Sode no Shirayuki to his eye level. "You're afraid of this little thing?"

"Don't play games with me." He said. "Drop it now!"

"If you say so." She replied.

She opened her hand so that the blade dropped point first. From the height she had raised it, it gave her sword plenty of time to gather enough speed for the razor sharp point to go through Nergal's foot like butter and embed itself in the floor.

The arrancar howled in pain, but did not release Rukia. It didn't matter. He was distracted enough for Rukia to push down on his sword hand and slip out from under his grasp. Once free, she pulled Sode no Shirayuki out of the hollow's foot, sweeping the blade upward to slice him in two. He had barely faded away before Rukia took charge of the situation.

"Ichigo, move!" She shouted as she attacked Anata. The strange looking hollow had recovered it's zampakuto and countered Rukia's attack with a point heavy defense, forcing Rukia to back up.

Ichigo dove for Zangetsu, but was bowled over as Sumuqan tackled him. They wrestled around on the floor as the hollow tried to use its superior size to his advantage. Ichigo squirmed to get into a better position as Sumuqan tried to wrap his huge meaty hands around the boy's neck.

"Don't you…ever…bathe?" Ichigo ground out between clenched teeth.

Finally, he thrust with his legs, hurling Sumuqan across the room. As the hollow struggled to his feet, he was too late to prevent Ichigo from regaining his zampakuto.

"Now you're going down." He said.

In desperation, Sumuqan dived to where his zampakuto lay on the floor and managed to pick it up. Ichigo charged, prepared to battle the now armed arrancar. To his amazement, the hollow used sonido to retreat to the farthest corner of the room. Hands shaking, Sumuqan opened a gargantua back to heuco mundo. He dived in before the portal was even halfway open.

"Sumuqan, you coward!" Anata shouted. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, the hollow managed to kick Rukia in the chest, driving her back. It ran towards the gargantua.

"Don't let it escape!" Rukia shouted at Ichigo.

He tried to tackled the arrancar as it headed towards him. It flipped forward, landed on Ichigo's head then somersaulted towards the portal. With a mocking salute, Anata escaped through the gate just before it closed.

"Dammit!" Ichigo swore. "I can't believe we let them all get away."

"It was my fault." Rukia said. "I didn't know he was in the room behind me. I should have checked."

"Don't be too hard on yourself." Ichigo said. "I'm just as responsible for this mess."

Speaking of messes, he thought, what about this place? He looked slowly around the apartment, taking in the damage.

"Say Rukia, what division is responsible for cleaning up stuff like this?"

* * *

Nemu didn't know how to describe how she felt that day. For some reason she felt really in the mood for some serious alone time with Uryuu. Really, really in the mood. Maybe it was because they were interrupted for the last two nights, but she was reassured by the fact that his father would not be home until very late as usual. Best of all, his little 'house guest' would be working until ten o'clock, probably not showing up until sometime after. They would have plenty of time all to themselves. To make things a little more interesting, she decided to try out some of Matsumoto's lessons from the Shinigmai Women's Association meetings. As she rang the doorbell, she hoped Uryuu would like it.

"Coming!" She heard him call out. He opened the door and his jaw dropped.

"Whoa." He managed to say.

"Pizza delivery." Nemu announced holding up the box.

"I've never seen a pizza delivered by anyone dressed like this." He said.

Nemu had done her best to be as eye catching and attractive as possible. With a little help from her friends, she had selected a simple sleeveless white tank top, form fitting and low cut, hugging her body down to her denim mini skirt wrapped around with a black belt with silver roundels. Her shoes were open toed high heels that went well with her black knee length stockings. She had gone very light on her makeup and perfume. For jewelry, she had dangling gold hoop earrings, a small charm bracelet and a celtic cross on a gold chain around her neck. It fit in well with the warm day.

"You look fabulous." He declared.

"Thank you, sir." She said "But if I'm not back to the shop in twenty minutes they will dock my pay."

He laughed at her joke. "Dock your pay. Get in here!"

"Only if I get a good tip." She insisted.

"How's this?" He said as his hands slipped around her waist. They kissed long and deeply.

"OK." She said as they came up for air. "I quit."

Laughing some more, he took the box from her hands. "How did you get this anyway?"

"I intercepted the delivery man on the way here. " She explained. "It was easy to persuade him to give me the pizza, but difficult to get him to leave. "

I'll just bet it was, Uryuu thought as he watched her walking before him. The denim skirt was snug around her hips and swayed hypnotically with her movements. They sat down on the couch and put the box on the coffee table.

"Have you ever had pizza before?" He asked.

She shook her head. She looked intently as he opened the box. Steam rose out from the still warm pizza.

"I hope you don't mind, I ordered extra corn." He said as he picked up a slice.

Nemu imitated him and picked up a slice herself, taking a big bite.

'Hmm. Interesting." She said after she swallowed.

"Not bad, eh?" He prompted.

"It's a bit greasy though." She said. "See, there's some on your mouth. She leaned in, running the tip of her tongue over his lips. Instantly, the pizza was forgotten. They dropped the slices back into the box as they came together, hands exploring, breathing heavily. Uryuu was surprised at how aggressive Nemu was acting. He broke away as she tried to pull him on top of her.

"Hey, let's save this for later. The pizza's getting cold and the show's about to start."

He picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. Nemu didn't really feel like eating at the moment. Nonetheless, she picked up her slice and leaned against Uryuu on the couch as she ate. She had to admit, Don Kanonji put on a good show from the moment he opened with his trademarked phrase.

"Spirits are always with you! BOHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

An hour later, she still wasn't sure just what it was she had watched.

"That was absurd." She observed. "The man clearly doesn't know what he's doing."

"I know." Uryuu responded. "It's the funniest thing in the world. He just keeps going on and on about the spirit world, but he's got to be making it up. He never gets anything right. You didn't like it?"

Nemu thought for a moment. "I understand it's not nice to laugh at someone. Still, he doesn't seem to realize he's doing anything foolish."

Uryuu smirked a little. "From what Kurosaki was telling me, he wouldn't get it even if you explained it to him. He kinda lives in his own little world."

Nemu glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "So the show is over now?" she asked.

"Yes," he said turning the TV off, "that's pretty much it."

"Good." She said as she turned to him. "I'm in the mood for desert."

"Well, I think we got some…" He started to say as he stood up. Nemu pulled at his belt, forcing him back on the couch. The look on her face was unmistakable.

"Oh, you mean that kind of desert."

She nodded. Their lips met once again, the heat building almost instantaneously. She guided his hands where she wanted them to go, moaning with pleasure. He was taken aback when she roughly shoved him down on his back and straddled his body. Her full weight pressed down on him pleasantly as her mouth hungrily sought his. He was beginning to feel things were getting out of control.

"Nemu, don't you want to take this up to the bedroom?" he asked as she started to bite at his earlobe.

She shook her head. "That'll take too long."

She began removing his belt. Uryuu started to panic. It seemed a risky doing it right there on the couch. After thinking about it for a second, he forced himself to relax. After all, they had the house all to themselves. No one was likely to call or stop by. Dad and Reiko would be at work for hours yet. So where was the harm, he thought to himself as he heard his zipper being pulled down.

"I'm home!" Reiko shouted as the front door banged open.

Nemu scrambled to the other side of the couch and frantically pulled her skirt and top back into place. Uryuu barely had time to zip up and get his belt back on before Reiko entered from the hallway. She walked in slowly with her face downcast and dejected.

"Ijima-san, are you OK?" Uryuu asked.

"No," she sighed, "I got fired." She walked over to the couch and sat down heavily between Uryuu and Nemu. She put her head in her hands and propped her elbows on her knees.

Uryuu and Nemu looked at each other over Reiko's head. As it was Uryuu's house, he would have to deal with it.

"Um, why did you get fired?" He asked.

Well, they weren't mean to me or anything." She replied. "I tried doing deliveries first, but I kept getting lost and the customers were complaining. So I told them I could help cook, and I can you know, but the spices were all in clear glass containers and I kinda mistook a few things.

She grinned sheepishly. "So they had me washing dishes. I figured there was no way I was going to screw that up. I had it all figured out. I would set it up so I would wash them all at once, then rinse them all at once, then dry them. It would be more efficient that way. But as I was stacking them up, I didn't realize how many there were until I was standing on tiptoe, and just as I was thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea…

She shrugged. "They said it might be better if I just left instead of trying to work it off. Oh, can I have some of that pizza?"

Uryuu gestured consent and Reiko helped herself to a cold slice.

"So what are you guys up to?" She asked.

"Ishida-san was showing me his favorite television show." Nemu replied.

"Then why's the TV off?" Reiko pointed out.

"We were finished." Uryuu said. "I was going to show her something else."

"There are many things I don't know about the real world." Nemu said. "Ishida-san has been kind enough to teach me."

"Did he tell you about that outfit yet?" Reiko asked.

"My outfit?" Nemu said as she looked at herself. "Why? Is there something wrong?"

"Don't get me wrong." Reiko said. "It looks good on you, but not being familiar with the real world, I guess you wouldn't know that showing that much, uh, front, um. Well, it kinda makes you look easy."

"Easy?" Nemu repeated.

"Yeah, you know. Like cheap?" She shrugged. "Sorry, I'm just trying to help."

Nemu got up from the couch. "I have to be going." She said coldly.

"Do you really?" Uryuu asked weakly.

Nemu looked at him with a stony look. "It's obvious you need to see to your house guest once again. Apparently I'll be in the way."

Reiko, sensing the mood, shrank down on the couch and turned on the TV trying to withdraw from the conversation.

"Can't you stay longer?" Uryuu pleaded.

"I really don't think that's wise." She said in a flat tone as she headed for the door.

"Should I call you tomorrow?" He said following after.

"I don't know, should you?" She said over her shoulder as she walked faster.

"I would really like to." He said as she grabbed the doorknob.

She paused. "All right. You can call me tomorrow."

Relieved, he moved towards her to kiss her goodnight. She didn't wait, snatching the door open and walking quickly out into the night. He watched her retreating back feeling vaguely ashamed and powerless. Did they just fight? As she turned the corner and left his sight he turned back inside and closed the door. Dejected, he went back into the living room.

"Got anything to drink?" Reiko asked.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary:** We learn a little more of the arrancar's plans. Meanwhile, all is not well for our young couple.

Uryuu's mouth was set in a hard line as he marched back into the living room. "What the hell was that?" He demanded.

"What?" Reiko asked around a mouthful of pizza.

"You just insulted my friend." He said. "I think you need to apologize to her."

"I was just trying to help." She protested. "She probably doesn't know how dress for the real world. I mean did you see how much cleavage she was showing? She looked like a streetwalker."

Uryuu bit back his reply, took a deep breath and counted to ten. "Even so, you really hurt her feelings."

Reiko snorted. "Feelings? Come on, it's not like she's a human being or anything."

Uryuu's mouth dropped open. He couldn't believe she actually said that. His mouth opened and closed and he tried to form a coherent thought though his anger and astonishment.

"What?" He managed to spit out.

"You know." Reiko said waving her hands around in a vague gesture, "She's a shinigami. She's a part of the spiritual ecosystem, filling a niche. Kinda like a wolf or a dung beetle."

Uryuu's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "Where did you get that nonsense from?" He asked, almost dizzy from trying to follow her logic.

"From my uncle." She replied. "He said they're just the flip side of hollows, doing their job because that's what they are. Cogs in the machine."

That made things a little clearer to Uryuu. She wasn't deliberately trying to put Nemu down. She was speaking from a position of ignorance. He took another deep breath. Then another.

"Look Ijima-san." He said as he adjusted his glasses. "When you first met Nemu, you were sure she was going to kill you. Remember?"

"Yes." Reiko said trying to follow along.

"Why did you think that?" He asked.

She scrunched her eyebrows together as she answered. "Well, Uncle said that's what shinigami's do. They attack on sight and kill any quincy they can."

"Is that what happened?" He probed. "Did Nemu act that way?"

"Uhm, well. No." Reiko admitted.

"So isn't it possible your uncle was wrong?" He pressed.

"My uncle was not a liar!" She said standing up.

"I'm not saying he was." Uryuu said holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm saying there were things that may have been true before, but they're not now. I'm also sure there were things he was told that were distorted over time with nothing but oral traditions to pass them along."

Reiko seemed to accept that. "You may be right."

"What do you know about Soul Society?" He continued.

"It's where we go when we die." She answered. "It's also where shinigami come from."

"And how are shinigami created?" He asked.

Reiko furrowed her brow as she thought about it. "I don't know. I thought they were immortal or something, that they were always there."

Uryuu pushed his glasses up. "They are recruited from the souls of the dead. If they have enough spiritual power, a soul can become a shinigami." He looked up into Reiko's eyes. "Every shinigami you see was once a person just like you or me."

Well, not Nemu, but Reiko didn't need to know that.

She looked back at him, realization slowly dawning on her face. "Oh no. I didn't know that."

"Even if you didn't," He lectured, "It's still not nice to talk to someone you just met that way. That's just common courtesy."

She hung her head in embarrassment. "You are right Ishida-san. Sometimes I just run off at the mouth without thinking. I'm sorry."

"That's fine for me," he said, "but what are you going to do about Nemu?"

"I'll apologize of course." She said. "The next time I see her, I'll be sure to let her know I'm sorry I hurt her feelings."

Suddenly Uryuu felt very tired. Dealing with this problem had been emotionally exhausting.

"I'm going to bed."He announced. "It's been a long day."

Wearily, he turned away from the young woman and started climbing the stairs. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"OK Ishida-san." Reiko replied. "And just you wait. Everything will turn out all right tomorrow. You'll see!" She gave him a grin and a cheery thumbs up.

He stared at her. She seemed to be contrite and sincere as she smiled at him. He forced himself to smile back and continued up the stairs. She didn't notice the smile never quite reached his eyes.

This wasn't working out, he thought. Reiko seemed to have more problems than just being broke and homeless. He was going to have to do something to help her get back on her feet. More importantly, fellow quincy or not, she had to find a place of her own. The lack of privacy and constant interruptions were really starting to annoy him. This was supposed to be the time for him and Nemu to finally enjoy some long denied closeness. Having to constantly change their plans was very, very frustrating. With that thought in mind, he decided he'd better take a cold shower before turning in.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late." The insect-like arrancar said stepping out of the gargantua. "Did I miss anything?"

"Not at all, Anata." Sargon answered. "I just finished questioning our comrade here."

Sprawled on the ground, Sumuqan lay bruised and bleeding, surrounded by the lesser hollows of their gang.

"If nothing else, he's serving as an excellent example of the price of failure."

"I did what I could." Sumuqan rasped.

"So you keep whining." Sargon said as he kicked his subordinate. He punctuated every sentence with a heavy stomp to the ribs. "Don't you have any initiative?" He snarled. "Don't you have any loyalty? Nergal was our most reliable operative and you let him die!"

"Anata was there too" Sumuqan moaned.

"Anata was backing you up." Sargon growled. "This was your mission which you failed."

"There was nothing to find!" Sumuqan mewled and he tried to shield himself. "There were no artifacts, nothing with any power in it. It's like the old man was never there. His relatives must have taken everything when he died."

"He's right you know." Anata said. "That place was totally empty. I think the shinigami may have set us up. Tried to lure us into a trap with false rumors."

Sargon shook his head. "If I were to set up a trap, I'd at least put in some bait. This lead was a dead end."

"So what do we do now?" Anata asked.

"You keep pursuing your mission." Sargon replied. He walked over to Sumuqan and dragged him to his feet. "And as for you, I've got another idea. Since Nergal is no longer with us, I'll have to rely on you to execute it. But be warned." He leaned in close, baring his teeth in a snarl, "If you screw this one up, you no longer have a place here. Do you understand?"

Sumuqan steeled himself to look up at Sargon's face. Blood and sweat rolled down his quivering face. He couldn't summon the courage to answer him. He didn't need to. Sargon could see by the abject terror in his eyes that Sumuqan understood all too well.

* * *

"So why did we have to come all the way out here for lunch?" Uryuu asked as he adjusted his tie.

"It's nice to get away from the school every once in a while Ishida-kun." Orihime chirped.

"Besides," Ichigo said, "We needed someplace quiet to talk."

That was an interesting statement, Uryuu thought as he looked around the American Burger. Fast food wasn't really his style. He couldn't remember eating in one of these franchise places before. Still, if they were looking to get away from their classmates, the restaurant certainly fit the bill. It was far enough away from their school that they were the only ones in uniform there.

"Let's take that corner booth." Rukia said pointing towards the back. Chad nodded and went to sit at the booth as the rest of the gang stood in line and placed their orders. Ichigo finished placing his order first and went to the booth, plastic number in hand. Chad got up to place his order as Ichigo sat down.

"So what is this all about?" Uryuu said when they were all finished.

"Not right now." Ichigo said. "We should probably wait until after our orders are served so we don't get interrupted."

"Besides," Rukia added, "I'm expecting someone."

"Really Kuchiki-san?" Orhime said. "Who?"

Rukia spotted someone through the window. "There she is." She waved at the person outside. Uryuu was dumbfounded when Nemu walked through the door in a school uniform.

"Nemu-san, how are you?" Rukia said as she greeted her fellow shinigami. "I was so surprised when you called. How are you enjoying your vacation in the real world?"

"It's been very educational so far." Nemu said.

Rukia turned to her friends. "Guys, you've all met Nemu for the twelfth division, haven't you?"

The group all gave her polite greetings.

"May I sit here?" she asked Uryuu.

"Sure." He said while sliding over. As she settled in, he whispered in her ear. "Are you still mad at me?"

She shook her head. After she had time to cool down, she thought about what had happened. Logically, there was no reason to mad at Uryuu. She wasn't sure why she had lost her temper do quickly. She thought about calling him the next morning, but decided it would be better to talk to him in person. She called Rukia to find out where he would be that day and was invited to lunch that way.

"I'm sorry." She whispered back. "I don't know why I acted that way."

"I'm sorry too." He started to say.

"You too are looking awfully cozy over there." Ichigo said with a smirk.

"Shut up." Uryuu said. "I'm just seeing if she wants to order something"

Ichigo lifted an eyebrow. "Oh? Then why were you whispering?"

Fortunately, Uryuu was saved by the arrival of the waitress.

"Good afternoon everyone. Who had number three? Triple cheese burger with steak fries?"

Uryuu turned around to see the waitress. He was immediately struck with a powerful sense of déjà-vu.

"Ijima-san?" he yelped.

"Ishida-san!" Reiko squealed. "Fancy meeting you here. Are these your classmates?"

"What are you doing here?" He asked

"Ta-daa! I got a job here!" She sang out as she twirled around to show off her uniform.

"You know her?" Ichigo asked

"Of course." Reiko said. "I'm the new quincy in town."

"Another quincy?" Orihime said. "Ishida-kun, I thought you were the only one left."

"It's a long story." He sighed.

Reiko started a bit when she noticed who was sitting next to Uryuu. She seemed to shrink in a little and looked very embarrassed.

"Oh. Nemu-san." She said. "I wasn't expecting to see you."

"I could say the same." Nemu coldly replied. She looked at Uryuu who shrugged.

Face flushed, Reiko started passing out their orders. She hadn't been able to carry all of them and soon held an empty tray.

"Just a moment. I'll be right back with the rest." She said as she made her second trip.

"Hey Ishida." Ichigo said after Reiko had left. "Is it cool to talk around her?"

"What do you mean?" He responded. "Is something going on?"

"There's been a lot of arrancar activity lately." Rukia said. "And it all seems to be centered on your grandfather."

Uryuu sat up straighter. "My grandfather? Why?"

"That's what we're trying to find out." Ichigo answered. "As far as we can tell, they're after something your grandfather had."

Uryuu shook his head. "I can't think of anything any quincy would have that would interest a hollow."

"What's this?" Reiko asked as she came back with the rest of their food. "Stuff about hollows and quincys?"

Everybody looked at Uryuu this time.

"It's fine." He said.

Rukia brought out her sketchbook. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Is that really necessary?" He asked

"You be quiet!" She snapped.

She opened the book to the first illustration showing a snarling arrancar-bear in front of a dramatically dark background with lightning bolts overhead.

"I'm sure you all remember the storm the other night when several arrancars and high level hollows attacked the town."

Everyone nodded as she turned to the next page showing the arrancar-bear in a fedora and trench coat.

"Meeting resistance, we find that instead of leaving, they went into hiding."

"This sounds interesting." Reiko said as she pulled a chair up to the booth.

"Should you be doing that?" Nemu asked. "You are on duty."

"Oh come on." Reiko replied. "They're not going to fire me on the first day."

Nemu sniffed and held her hand over her nose. "What is that perfume you're wearing?"

"Do you like it?" Reiko asked. "I just got it this morning.

"No." Nemu said trying to move away. "It smells very strong to me."

"Really?" Orhime said. "I can barely smell it."

"I'll move over here." Reiko said moving farther away from Nemu. It didn't help much. Nemu took out a handkerchief and put it over her nose.

Rukia turned to the next page where a group of arrancar-bears stood over a bleeding Afro-bunny being confronted by an Orhime-bunny and a Chad-bear.

"The first indication that they were looking for something specific was when they were caught by kur..kara…this guy."She pointed to the Afro-bunny. "He overheard them talking about an unspecified thing they wanted to gain power."

Orihime threw out her chest in pride. "We sure chased them off, didn't we Sado-kun?"

Chad gave a gentle smile as he nodded. Rukia turned to the next page showing Rukia-bunny and Ichigo-bear fighting several arrancar-bears.

"We've confirmed that they are looking for something your grandfather had during a stakeout. Unfortunately, we couldn't capture one for interrogation."

"When were you guys going to tell me about all of this? " Uryuu asked.

"We're telling you now, aren't we?"Ichigo responded. He turned to Rukia. "We're done now, right? We don't need to look at your crappy pictures anymore, right?"

"I told you to be quiet!" She growled.

She turned to the last page showing an arrancar-bear standing on a pile of comically dead hollows, holding up his arm in triumph.

"Urahara-san believes what we are seeing is the result of a power vacuum."

"With nobody in charge of Hueco Mundo, everybody's trying to take charge." Ichigo clarified. "The arrancar we've been seeing seem to be convinced something your grandfather had will give them an advantage."

"Can you think of anything they might be looking for Ishida-san?" Rukia asked. "It would be a big help."

"I already said I don't know." Uryuu replied. "How could hollows use Quincy artifacts? It doesn't make sense. Still, I'll look through his things and see what I can find."

"I'd like to help." Reiko said.

Uryuu looked at her and frowned. "I don't think you should get involved in this Ijima-san."

"Why not?" She asked. "As a Quincy, I think I have a responsibility to help."

Uryuu pushed up his glasses. "If you get involved in this, it may leave you exposed. You don't have the skills you need to defend yourself."

"I can create a bow. I can fight." She said defensively.

"Maybe so, but you lack skill with it." Uryuu pointed out. "If you can't hit anything accurately, you're just as much a danger to yourself as your enemy."

"Then teach me." Reiko pleaded. "I can better if you help me, I know it."

"Tell you what."Uryuu countered. "If you promise to stay out of this, I mean run if you so much as feel an arrancar, I'll give you some lessons."

"Really!" Reiko said with a beaming smile. "Can we start tomorrow? "

"I suppose..."He began to say. Nemu started to make a choking sound.

He peered at her face in alarm. "Are you alright?"

She had her handkerchief pressed tightly against her nose and mouth. Her complexion looked a little green.

"I'm sorry everyone." She said. "I'm feeling a little nauseous right now."

"Maybe you need something in your stomach?" Orhime said holding out her burger. "Try this. I think it could use some grape jelly personally, but it's not bad."

Nemu looked at the triple bacon and blue cheese hamburger in front of her face, dripping with onions and extra ketchup. The smell overpowered even Reiko's perfume. Gagging, she jumped up and ran to the bathroom.

Everyone spoke up in alarm.

"Is she OK?"

"Is she sick?"

"Someone should go see if she needs help."

All the girls stood up to go after her. Reiko waved them all back down.

"Don't worry about this. Please finish eating, I'll handle it."

"Are you sure?" Orhime asked.

"Of course. Besides," she said looking at Uryuu, "I have something I need to say to her."

* * *

Reiko walked in to find Nemu heaving over one of the toilets, supporting herself with one arm on the wall. She looked up with at her, shaking but looking less green. She walked over to the sink and starting running the water.

"Are you OK Nemu-san?" Reiko asked. "Everyone is worried. Can I do anything to help?"

"You can stand as far away from me as possible." Nemu croaked. She filled her hands with water and splashed it on her face.

"Oh right, the perfume. I forgot it was bothering you."

That was one reason, Nemu thought as she rinsed the sour bile out her mouth. She was surprised to feel so sick all of the sudden, but she figured it was the cheap rental gigai. Urahara was still upset with how she had damaged his deluxe model. Maybe he had modified this one to punish her? She was sure she'd feel better if she got out of it. She rinsed her mouth out again.

Reiko watched her from the corner by the door. "Um, Nemu-san. I've been meaning to tell you something."

Nemu arched an eyebrow and turned around. She leaned against the sink, using a paper towel to dry off.

Reiko continued. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry about insulting you last night. I was being very rude and thoughtless. I know I spout off without thinking a lot, and I forget to think about what other people are feeling. If I were you, I probably would have got mad at me too. So, you know, I'm sorry. I'll try not to do it again."

Nemu looked downward in thought for a second. It's true she didn't like Reiko, but she didn't really have a good reason for it. Perhaps she should work on getting along with her better. She seemed to be sincere.

"Very well." She said looking up. "I accept your apology."

Reiko sighed in relief. "Thank you Nemu-san that's a big load off of my mind. Ishida-san really let me have it when you left and made me realize I need to be more sensitive to other people. "

Nemu certainly wasn't going to argue with her about that.

"He's really something, you know." Reiko said. She leaned towards Nemu with a smile on her face. "Say Nemu-san, how well do you know Ishida-san? Like, if I were to ask you stuff about him?"

"Fairly well." Nemu said cautiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I know we only just met, but…"She looked from side to side, even though there was no one else in the bathroom. "I was thinking of asking him out!"

"Asking him out?" Nemu repeated in a mechanical tone. It felt as though the floor had dropped out of the world. Her stomach heaved as though she was falling a mile a minute. She thought she might start throwing up again. And the foolish girl in front of her would not stop talking!

"Can't you just see it? Not only is he cute, but he's a quincy just like me! It's like fate. Then after awhile, we'll get married and have lots and lots of babies. We can rebuild the quincy race. We'll be like the quincy Adam and Eve! Nemu-san? Hey, you're not saying anything. You're starting to look green again. Are you going to be sick?"

Reiko couldn't know the struggle going on inside. As soon as Reiko said "married" an image popped into her mind. An image of her killing Reiko. It wouldn't be a quick, painless death either. No, she knew just how to treat a human's body to make it last a long, long time, enduring agonies that made every second stretch out for an eternity. She could just picture it, Reiko laid out on a slab, restrained hand and foot, loose coils of pink intestines splayed out in all direction while she screamed and screamed. Nemu could almost feel the scalpel in her hand, feel the blood running down her arm.

NO! she screamed in her mind. Closing her eyes, she shook her head and forced the image to go away. Even then, a small voice seemed to whisper inside. Telling her to attack now. Telling her how easy it would be, even confined within a gigai, to dismantle this annoying girl with just her bare hands.

Reiko came closer, a look of concern on her face. She touched Nemu on the shoulder.

"Hey, do you think you need a doctor?" She asked.

Nemu looked at Reiko's hand. She shook as she fought the urge to seize it violently. This wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to hurt an innocent person. Why couldn't she make it stop?

"I have to leave." She blurted out as she ran out the door. She almost knocked down Uryuu who was standing outside.

"Nemu, what's wrong?" He asked as he grasped her by the shoulders.

Nemu's first instinct was to wrap her arms around him, to seek comfort in his embrace. Before she could, a terrible thought struck her. What if he could feel it? What if he could look into her eyes and see the vile things lurking in her mind? She tore herself away and ran out the door, fleeing down the street.

"Nemu-san!" Reiko called out as she left the bathroom.

"What did you say to her!" Uryuu shouted as he took off after Nemu.

"I don't know."Reiko wailed. "Whatever it was, I'm sorry!"

Ichigo and Chad got to their feet. "Let's go. Ishida may need help."

"No." Rukia said with a thoughtful look on her face. "I think its better we leave them alone."

"Yes, "Orihime agreed, "its better we stay out of this."

The boys looked at each other confused. They sat back down. Reiko looked out the window, the realization that she had seriously misunderstood something important written all over her face. Meanwhile, a manager came out from around the main counter and approached Reiko.

"Ijima." He curtly snapped, holding out a piece of paper. "This is for you."

Reiko distractedly took the paper from his hands. After the first few words, it soon had her full attention.

"I'm fired?" she wailed.

* * *

Nemu sat on the boulder next to the waterfall. Her head was in her hands as she tried to understand what had just happened. She had resolved to be a better person. She was finished with harming innocent people and causing needless suffering. She still had so much to atone for. Reiko was not a bad person deserving punishment. Why did she want to hurt her so much? True, she declared her intentions to take Uryuu away from her. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know Nemu's relationship with him. It was completely unfair to Reiko to resent her and be angry with her. She couldn't help it. The small angry part of her inside still whispered, tempting her to hunt her rival down and eliminate her. She couldn't make it stop.

"I thought I'd find you here." She heard. She looked up. Uryuu was walking down path to their secret place, a gentle smile on her face. At first she was happy. Then she looked away. She didn't feel worthy of his presence.

"What's wrong Nemu?" he asked. "You looked upset when you left."

He sat down next to her and waited patiently for her to speak. He wanted to put his arm around her. The way she shrank away from him made him think that wasn't a good idea. The wind blew through the trees. Birds sang. The waterfall led a dull splashing roar to the background.

"Ishida-san." Nemu said while still looking away. "You can no longer be with me. I'm afraid I am still a bad person."

Uryuu was shocked at her use of formality as much as what she said.

"What are you talking about Nemu?" He said. "You're not a bad person."

"I must be."She replied. "I thought that I could change. I wanted to be a better person. Now, I think I was just lying to myself." She looked at Uryuu with tears forming in her eyes.

"Ishida-san, when I was talking to Reiko, she said some things that made me very angry. I wanted to hurt her. Mayb even kill her. "

"What did she say?"Uryuu asked concerned.

"It doesn't matter." Nemu said. "I told myself I wasn't going to harm anyone anymore. I wanted to do good things and help people. If that's true, why do I want to do hurt her? If I say I am good, but I really want to do harm to someone anyway, and I can't stop feeling that way…doesn't that make me bad?"

Uryuu gently reached for her. "No, Nemu, that doesn't make you a bad person. People feel like that all the time."

Her eyes widened. "They do?"

"Yes," he said smiling, "people are like that a lot. In fact, it would be little strange if you could control your feelings like a light switch. Look at Kurosaki. Most of the time, I want to punch him right in his smug, scowling face. I don't act on it though. We get along."

"That's true." Nemu said. "You are good friends. So I'm not unusual?"

"Of course not." Uryuu said. He moved his face close to hers. "I think you may be jealous though."

Nemu gasped. Jealous? Of course! That must be what she was feeling. She was jealous of Reiko. On the other hand, she had good reason. She could still hear the woman babbling on about using Uryuu to start a new quincy race. Her scalpel hand began to itch. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her back to him. She knew what her problem was now. She still felt unclean.

"How do I make it stop Uryuu?" She said sadly.

He was glad she used his name again. He put his arms around her waist.

"There's nothing you can do really." He said. "Give it time. After a while, you'll see there's nothing to be jealous about and the feeling will fade away."

Despite herself, Nemu leaned into his arms. It felt so good to be held like that. "So you're not disgusted with me?"

He laughed. "No. You're Just as normal as anyone else." He gently turned her head to face him. "And you're very special to me."

He lightly brushed her lips with his, earning a smile. Nemu turned to face him, wrapping her arms around him as she had wanted to when he arrived. His fingers buried themselves in her hair as their kisses grew deeper and longer. All thoughts of violent revenge soon left Nemu's mind. Time and space shrank down to just the here and now, a sunny spot by a waterfall in the arms of the man she loved. It was strange when an odd idea intruded.

She moved away to speak. "Uryuu, aren't you going to be late for class?"

"I'll borrow somebody's notes." He replied as he pulled her back. Later, the grass on the riverbank proved to be surprisingly soft.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary:** The arrancar are running out of options and Nemu is still dealing with her feelings of jealousy.

160 Years ago…

Ishida Hitoshi wiped his brow as he held up the finished cross with his tongs. Steam still boiled off the rapidly cooling metal from its last dunk in the cooling barrel. He'd done it. He actually made a working quincy cross. The metal was alloyed, blended and shaped in just the right way to focus and channel the spritirons gathered by the quincy who wore it. He had completed the first step in his apprenticeship as a weaponsmith.

"Let me see that." His father Genpaku said.

His son obligingly dropped the small pendant on the palm of his leather glove. Carefully, he felt the cross with the bare finger of his other hand, not touching it until he was sure it was cool enough to do so. When he could, he picked it up and held it with his eyes closed.

"Very good." He said. "There's still some room for improvement, but otherwise very good. It's functional."

He opened his eyes, his face beaming with pride. "You picked this up fast."

Hitoshi smiled at his father's praise.

"It's not as hard as I thought it would be. As far as I can tell, the trick is all in how you infuse the metal with spiritrons."

"That's exactly right." Genpaku said. "It took the Quincy centuries of trial and error before we learned the secret that allows us to forge our weapons.

He looked over at the scroll removed from its bronze case propped up carefully far from the forge.

"We stumbled on this technique by accident more than anything. Like anything else, it's not so hard once you know how. That's why I'm proud to be able to pass these techniques on to you. If we lose this knowledge, it's unlikely we'll ever rediscover it."

"Are you sure father?" Hitoshi asked. "If the secret was lost, wouldn't future quincy work to re-discover it?"

Genpaku sighed. "I'm sure they would Hitoshi. It's not that simple. Besides knowing the secret, you have to be born with the talent to use it. Not just any Quincy can do this you know."

He clapped his son on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about it too much. The talent runs strong in our family. I expect you will pass this along to your children. Now let's try again. You still have a long way to go my son."

* * *

Ururu looked up from her sweeping as the bell rang over the shop's front door. She went to greet the customer still holding her broom. She gave a polite bow.

"Good morning, sir. Can I help you?"

He was a fairly large man in rumpled clothes. He peered at her with red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes. He hadn't shaved in days, his hair was limp and greasy and his skin was clammy.

"I understand this is a very special shop." He rasped. "That people looking for very particular things have a good chance of finding them here."

Ururu looked puzzled. "I'm not sure what you mean, sir."

The man fumbled through his coat pocket producing a small box.

"Give this to your boss." He said as he handed it to her. "This will explain everything. He'll see me then."

With a frown, Ururu took the box from the man and went to the back room. It wasn't long before the proprietor himself came out.

"Ah, welcome to my humble shop, Mr…?"

The man ignored Urahara's obvious implied question and didn't give his name.

"Do you have someplace we can talk?" His eyes shifted to Ururu and Jinta who had also come out from the back "Privately?"

Urahara's smiled slyly from the shadow formed by his hat. "Of course. Come right this way. "

He led the stranger to the sitting room in the back and offered him a seat opposite the round table in the middle.

"Would you like some tea?" Urahara asked.

"I really don't have a lot of time." The man said, his eyes darting around the room. "I've come to ask you about a certain object. I understand you are very good at finding things."

Urahara decided to overlook the man's extreme rudeness of ignoring hospitality and being so bluntly direct.

"I take it the object you are looking for has something to do with this?"

He opened the box Ururu gave him and held up a quincy cross on a chain.

"I have to tell you sir, we don't get a lot of quincy business here these days."

He set the pendent and chain down on the table.

The man leaned forward. "You do deal with them don't you? At least in the past? The thing I'm looking for used to belong to Ishida Souken. He used to live in this town."

Urahara snapped open his fan. "I am not unfamiliar with that person. He never dealt with me in any way. Why do you think I would have anything of his?"

The man was visibly sweating now. Desperation was etched in every line on his face. "Everything I've tried to find this object hasn't worked. It's important that I find it. It could be very dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. If you don't have it, I can make it very worth your while to find it for me."

"I've no doubt of what you say." Urahara said gently waving his fan before his face. "However, who is to say yours are not the wrong hands?"

"Isn't that proof enough I'm on the right side?" the man said pointing to the cross on the table.

"I'm afraid not." Urahara said snapping his fan shut. He picked the cross up and dangled it between them. "You see, this is a fake. Just like you. Now, Tessai."

With a grunt, the huge bespectacled man seized the stranger's hands and forced them behind his back. Their guest had no idea when the large man had snuck up behind him.

"What are you doing?" He cried. "I came to you for help. Is this how you serve your customers?"

Urahara smiled. "I don't think you know as much about us as you should. I've handled Quincy artifacts before. They have a certain quality, a responsiveness if you will, when you touch them. This feels like so much dead metal. Even if this were not the case, I'm afraid you don't wear that disguise very well."

He held up his cane which began to glow.

"Let's see who's really visiting us today, shall we?"

Striking the man in the forehead, the guise of a human being melted away revealing the form of the arrancar Sumuqan.

"Hmm, not sure I want to expand our customer base in this direction." He said while rubbing his chin.

"You fool!" Sumuqan bellowed "You have no idea what you've just done. You've as good as killed me!"

"Now, now, we're not that harsh. " Urhara assured him. "You may find our interrogation techniques a little unpleasant, but we're not about to kill you. At least not right away. Tessai? Be careful while I try a little restraint kido on our guest."

Sumuqan refused to surrender quietly. The man holding his arms was powerful, but desperation gave him strength. He drove the back of his head into Tessai's face. He struck just right, smashing the big man's nose. Instinctively letting go to grab at his face, Sumuqan sprang free before Urahara could restrain him. Running out into the shop, he almost didn't see Ururu standing before him. Ignoring the girl cost him dearly as she kicked him across the shop. Crashing against the wall, he barely had time to gather his wits before rolling to dodge Jinta's iron club. Staggering to his feet, he unsheathed his zampakuto.

"Trample…!"

Before he could complete his incantation, Ururu neatly snatched the sword from his hand. He could only stand there, flatfooted and dumfounded as Jinta smashed him out the front door. He had enough! He picked a direction and ran.

"After him!" Jinta cried as he pursued.

Sumuqan fought to gather his wits about him enough to use sonido or at least get airborne. His mind was in a whirl of panic and dread, too muddled to concentrate. As soon as he could get away, he would open a gargatua back to Hueco Mundo. He would not report his failure to Sargon. No, he would look for a new group to join, maybe one that wasn't so murderous.

Turning a corner, he saw he wasn't going to get a chance.

"Sargon!" he gasped.

The huge arrancar stood there as if he had been waiting all day. He already had his zampakuto drawn.

"Sargon, you have to give me another chance!" Sumuqan pleaded. "There's no way I could have succeeded in that mission."

"Then you are of no use to me at all." Sargon growled. Sumuqan's pathetic expression stayed on his face long after his head struck the ground.

Sargon turned away disgusted. He stepped through the gargantuan just as Sumuqan's pursuers arrived. There were hardly worth looking at as the dimensional rift closed behind him. The mission had been so simple. Find out if the shopkeeper had the artifact, and if he didn't, hire him to find it. How could you mess that up? Now that Sumuqan had failed so spectacularly, there was no point in trying it again. The fool deserved his fate. That left only himself and Anata in charge of the various hollows that had allied with them. They had better produce some results soon or their own followers would turn on them.

* * *

"Wow, this place is nice!" Reiko exclaimed as they entered the clearing.

Uryuu had his reservations about bringing her there, but there really was no better place for training nearby.

"Yes, it is." He said. "Usually if you can't find me anywhere else, you can find me here."

"I can see why." Reiko replied as she stood next to the waterfall. "Such a private place so close to the city. How did you find it?"

Uryuu took off his backpack and put it down.

"My grandfather brought me here. This is where he taught me how to use my bow."

He had a lot of happy memories of that time with Souken. A lot memories afterward too. Years of training alone after sensei's murder. Practicing with the Sanrei glove for seven straight days preparing to invade Soul Society. And Nemu. She was now a part of those memories. Maybe that's why bringing Ijima-san here felt wrong. There was nowhere else to take her though. What else could he do? He did promise to start her lessons today. With that thought in mind, he decided to get started.

"Tell me Ijima-san, what do you know about firing your bow?" He asked.

She looked upward as she recited the process. "Well, you gather spiritrons from the environment around you, focus them at your center, channel them up through your arm and use the cross as the nucleus of your bow. You create the arrow in almost the exact same way pulling the energy with your opposite hand."

"That's correct." Uryuu said. "But did you also know the process is easier if you're wearing quincy robes?"

"It is?" She asked. "That doesn't seem logical."

"It's not." Uryuu replied. "It just always feels that way to me."

Reiko gave a rueful grin. "Well it doesn't matter. I don't have any quincy robes."

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure." Uryuu said. He turned around and pulled something from his backpack. "Ta-dah!"

Reiko gasped. "Quincy robes? For me?"

"Yes." Uryuu said smiling as he handed them over. "I made them just for you."

She ran her hands over the blue and white material. "Wow. I heard the quincy wore special clothes, but I never seen any before."

"This is just to get you started." He said. "They're a basic pattern. Once you get the general idea, you can customize the theme however you like. That's also quincy tradition."

"Thank you Ishida-san." She crooned as she hugged the clothes against her body. "Should I try them on now?"

Uryuu adjusted his glasses. "I think just the cape for now."

She grinned from ear to ear as she pulled the cape over her shoulders. She gave a small spin.

"How do I look?"

Uryuu had to smile back at her enthusiasm. "It looks very good on you." He gestured for her to stand over by the riverbank. "Now, show me how well you shoot. Stand over there and fire one shot towards that boulder."

Reiko skipped over to the spot indicated. Calming down, she took a stance and ignited her bow. She slowly, carefully created an arrow and aimed it. Uryuu was glad it at least went downstream. She missed the boulder by several meters.

She turned to face him. "What am I doing wrong?"

Where to start? Uryuu thought.

"Well, your stance is all wrong. Holding the bow in your left hand, you should have your left foot forward. No, point the toe forward a little too. Now holding you bow hand parallel to the ground, you want to draw so your elbow is, no wait, you're doing that wrong."

"Can't you show me Ishida-san?" she pleaded.

Show her? He guessed he was going to have to, she wasn't taking direction well.

"OK." He said while gingerly putting his hands on her waist. "Turn your body this way. Yes that's it. Now point your toe out more. Is that comfortable? Good."

He stepped back. "Now let's see your bow hand."

She still wasn't doing it right. "Like this?"

He sighed. "No. Here let me show you." He stepped up behind her and steadied her arm at the proper angle. "Alright, now let's try this again."

Holding on to her, he could feel as she pulled spiritrons from their surroundings, feel them building up as she pooled them together. Soon, she was ready to draw.

"Now Ishida-san?" She asked.

"Yes." He said. "I want you to draw and hold. Don't fire until I tell you."

As expected, she didn't do that right either. Still holding her bow arm, he reached around with his other hand to guide her drawing arm into the right position.

"Do you feel the difference Ijima-san? Can you see how this will give you more control?"

"You're right Ishida-san, this is much better." She said "Should I fire now?"

"There's one last thing you have to consider Ijima-san." He replied. "It's very important. How do you feel?"

Reiko didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"Firing a quincy arrow is not just a matter for gathering energy and directing it." Uryuu explained. "Quincys fire from their heart. The purity of your intent affects the accuracy of your strike. You must fire from a heart filled with the desire to protect. You can still hit your target with a heart filled with hate or anger, but the desire to protect stems from love. A heart filled with love makes the best shots possible. Do you understand?"

She thought it over. "I think so Ishida-san. I think I'm ready to try now."

"Alright then." He said. "Now breathe out, hold it and let your fingertips gently roll away. The release should almost be a surprise."

She nodded and settled down into her stance. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. Seconds later, she released. The arrow struck the boulder right in the center!

"I did it!" she screamed "I did it!" Turning around, she threw her arms around Uryuu, squeezing him tight. "I'm so happy. You helped me so much."

Uryuu's eyes widened. He hadn't expected this. He reached around and carefully pried her arms off.

"Don't get too excited." He said. "That was just one shot. You have lots of practice before you will be any good."

She beamed up at him. "Yeah, but now you're with me. I'm sure I'll get better in no time."

"Tell you what," he said with an awkward smile, "you keep practicing, and I'll watch you from over there. OK?"

They did just that for the next half hour. Every now and then Uryu would correct her or encourage her as he felt necessary. He did not try to physically correct her again. He felt she really didn't know him well enough to warrant that much invasion of his personal space. Concentrating on teaching Reiko made him lose track of time. He was surprised to hear Nemu's voice calling out to him.

"Uryuu! Are you down here?"

He called back. "Yes, here I am."

"What's all that noise I hear?" She asked as she entered the clearing. "It's almost time for our lessons."

She froze as soon as she caught sight of Reiko.

"Hi, Nemu-san!" Reiko shouted waving wildly. "We were just practicing."

"We?" Nemu asked looking at Uryuu.

He grimaced. "I gave her my word I'd teach her proper quincy techniques. This was the only practical place."

"I see." Nemu replied. "I understand."

And on an intellectual level, she did. It made perfect sense that Uryuu would take that woman here to train. It was a logical location. She hadn't told Uryuu yet about their conversation in the women's bathroom yesterday. He wouldn't know Reiko had designs on him. She supposed it was her fault. She still wasn't sure if she should tell him. If she had, he probably wouldn't be down here alone with her. She couldn't really blame Reiko either. Her relationship with Uryuu was a secret to everyone. She was perfectly innocent in all of this.

On the other hand, she couldn't deny she had a burning desire to drag the woman out into the stream and hold her head under the water. She consoled herself with the knowledge that jealousy didn't have to be logical and was a perfectly normal response. She would just have to ignore it. She gave a polite bow.

"How are you doing today, Ijima-san?"

"Just great," the young woman replied, "I'm starting the night shift at the convenience store tonight and I think I found an apartment nearby."

"You found a place to stay?" Nemu said. "I'm so happy for you."

"Yes, I'm sure the Ishidas will be glad to get me out of their hair." Reiko joked. "Oh hey, speaking of Ishida, look at this. He made me the coolest outfit!"

"Did he now?" Nemu said politely. "How nice of him"

Yes she could just see that last air bubble breaking the surface as Reiko grew steadily weaker under the river's surface. She pushed the ugly thought away.

"Are you ready to go to our lessons now Ishida-san?" She asked thought slightly clenched teeth.

Uryuu had the horrible feeling peculiar to the male of the species that he had done something wrong, but he didn't know what.

"Um, yeah sure. Let me get my backpack."

Scooping up his bag, he joined Nemu at her side as she walked back up the path.

Reiko called out after them. "Bye Ishida-san, bye Nemu-san. Have fun."

Nemu looked backwards to see Reiko waving and smiling enthusiastically. She waved back and tried to put the girl out of her thoughts. She was a problem Nemu would deal with later. For now, she was going to enjoy her hobby with her man. Reiko would never have that privilege. Still, as they got on the train to go across town to the dance studio, an annoying thought kept buzzing in her mind. For some reason, the image of Reiko smiling and waving seemed to alter in her memory. Now that she had a chance to think about it, it almost seemed Reiko was not smiling at all. In fact, her expression could almost be called a smirk. Yes, Reiko was a problem that definitely needed to be dealt with.

* * *

It had not been a good session. Nemu had woken up feeling nauseous that morning. She had no idea why. She couldn't blame it on her gigai. Nonetheless, she forced down her breakfast and spent her morning playing with Yachiru as she had planned. This was her first vacation ever, and she was not going to let a stomach bug ruin everything. It didn't feel serious enough to go to the fourth division and she didn't want to run into Mayuri-sama again using her own equipment to check it out, so she simply ignored it. She still didn't feel too good. Besides her queasy stomach, seeing Reiko made her very upset. The instructor had to correct her several times. Their lessons were usually a fun time for both of them, enjoying the feel of their graceful and strong bodies as they weaved together on the dance floor. Today the lesson felt like nothing but work. Both of them were tired and felt off when they were done.

"I'm sorry Uryuu." She said on the train home. "I don't know what was wrong with me today."

He put his arm around her shoulders. "It's all right Nemu. Everyone had a bad day sometimes. Why don't you rest until we get to our stop?"

Gratefully, she put her head on his shoulder. She did feel very tired. She was going to have to tell him about Reiko. But how? What did you do in these situations? She needed to ask someone. She closed her eyes and started to doze, leaning against Uryuu's comforting warmth. The smiling faces of the Shinigami Women's Society came to mind. Yes, her friends. One of them could help. She would ask them the next time she saw them. She knew getting into a relationship with Uryuu would be complicated. She didn't think something like this was going to happen. Uryuu gently shook her awake.

"Nemu, it's our stop."

Stepping off onto the platform, they took a moment to stretch.

"We still got some time, Nemu."Uryuu said. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't really feel like going anywhere." She replied. "I still feel tired. I feel like a hot bath more than anything."

Uryuu gave a wicked smile. "Well you know, nobody's supposed to be home right now. You want to back to my house."

Nemu gave him a stony look.

Uryu adjusted his glasses. "Look, I know that didn't work out too well last time, but Ryuuken's at the hospital and Ijima-san is supposed to be at her new job. What are the odds we'll be interrupted?

Nemu continued to stare at him.

Uryuu sighed. "OK, so the odds are pretty good."

"Uryuu." She said. "I know there are many things I still don't understand. I don't want to be offensive and I don't mean to hurt people. "She took a deep breath. "I want you to know that when it comes to Ijima Reiko, I…I…I just don't like her! It's probably a cruel and hurtful thing to say, but I do not want to have to see that woman ever again. "

Uryuu began to laugh. "Neither do I." he said.

"Really?" Nemu said.

"Yes,'Uryuu replied, "I mean I know she's had a hard life and all, but she's really annoying. I hate to think I might get trapped on an elevator with her someday. She'd drive me nuts."

"But you're so nice to her." Nemu pointed out.

"I know." Uryuu admitted. "With her being a quincy, it makes things complicated. I'm glad she's moving out soon. I'm hoping she'll either move on with her quest to find more quincys or build up her own circle of friends here in Karakura that don't include me. "

Nemu was surprised to feel relieved. "So what do we do now?" she asked.

Uryuu took her hand. "Come with me. I have an idea."

* * *

In a country about the same size as the U.K. with twice the population and 85% of the land mass being mountains, there's not a lot of space. Privacy is hard to come by. A young couple looking for a few hours alone had few choices, but one of them was a very good choice. Uryuu had passed by this particular "Love Hotel" many times, but he never considered that some day he would be using it.

While he'd never been inside one, everybody knew how they worked. There was no clerk. It was almost totally automated. Available rooms were indicated by a back lit picture. You selected the room you wanted by pushing a button and the light went out as the key dropped into a dispenser below. After some consideration, they selected a room with a gothic theme, draped in red and black velvet and 18th century style furniture to include a huge four poster bed and a claw foot bathtub more than suitable for two. Selecting the four hour option, they took the key and followed the lights guiding them out the door.

"I'll get the bath started." Uryuu said as they entered the room.

Nemu took her time looking around. Designed to blend in with the surroundings, the phone by the door had an old timey look to it and a leather bound book had the room service numbers and price listings in case they should need anything. The list of things available was impressive as it was eclectic, anything from snacks to alcohol to extra lubricant and anything in between. A flat screen television was hidden behind an oil painting that slid sideways. The various cable channels available or that they could rent was posted besides it. None of that especially interested her. She was impressed with the huge bed. Made of carved oak, it was both elegant and solid. Lying down on the mattress, she found it wonderfully soft. It would be nice to stay here a while. With the sound of water running into the tub, she got back up and looked around a little more. The nightstand had some kind of cabinet in it. Opening it up, she saw it was stocked with various oils and lotions. She pulled out a bottle that was labeled "Aromatherapy Massage oil". Opening it up, she found it smelled nice.

"Would you like me to use that on you after our bath? " Uryuu murmured in her ear as he embraced her from the back.

"You want to give me a massage?" She asked.

"Why not?" He asked as he began to kiss her neck. "I think you'd like it."

She put her hand along his face, stroking his cheek. "Yes, I would like that."

She pressed her body against his as he drew her tight in his arms, a small gasp escaping her lips when he nibbled at her earlobe. She dropped the bottle on the bed. She was about to turn around to enjoy his lips more fully when he whispered something in her ear that stopped her cold.

"Nemu, I'm not happy about how things are going with us."

She stiffened as the words echoed in her brain. "Not happy?" She murmured

"No," He breathed into her ear. "I know we said we'd take whatever we can get and be happy with it, but lately, I find it's just not enough."

"What do you want to do Uryuu?" She asked. She felt confused and a little afraid.

"I want more than this." He said. "I don't want to hide or relationship anymore. "

He turned her around and looked deep into her eyes. "Nemu, I want to let everyone know about us. I don't want to skulk around making excuses to see each other. I want to tell our friends, I want to tell my father."

Nemu couldn't believe how happy his declaration made her feel. It was so unexpected. So romantic. So impractical.

"Uryuu, Mayuri-sama would never accept you."

"I'll make him accept us." He said forcefully.

Nemu hugged him tight. "That's sweet, but impossible. He is not open to persuasion."

Uryuu stroked her hair. "We can't keep going on like this. At least our friends should know. I love you Nemu, I don't want to hold it in anymore."

"And I love you, Uryuu." She said as she reached up to guide his face down to hers. It was a long time before they came up for air. "We'll work something out. I'm sure of it."

Uryuu bent down to kiss her some more, but stopped.

"Uh oh, I forgot about the tub!" He ran over to the bathtub and turned off the water. "Whew, that was close. It's just right. "

"Do you want me to scrub your back?" Nemu asked as she entered the bathroom.

"That sounds nice." He said with a smile.

They got to work disrobing each other with many long pauses for kissing and caressing. This carried over to the lathering up before their soak in the tub. That was the great thing about being in a committed relationship. There was no awkwardness or clumsiness to their actions, no reason to be embarrassed. Well, almost none.

"Did you get a tattoo? "Uryuu asked as he scrubbed her back.

"Hmm?" Nemu replied. "What do you mean?"

"It says shop at Urahara's on your butt."

Nemu cursed the shopkeeper and his cheap gigais.

"Don't worry about it." She said.

"But I mean who's expected to read it there?" He continued.

"I said don't worry about it." Nemu insisted as she rinsed the suds off her body. She stepped into the tub and sank down into the hot water. She held out her hand to Uryuu. Hurriedly rinsing of himself, he eagerly joined her in the tub.

* * *

They still had an hour left on the room. Uryuu had slipped into a light doze. Nemu watched his face with her head resting on his shoulder, enjoying the feel of the silken sheets against her skin, still warm from their lovemaking. He wanted to shout their love from the top of the world, letting everyone know. Silly, romantic, impractical man. How did she have the good fortune to meet him? She snuggled closer, all her problems forgotten in her joy. She'd worry about them tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary**: Nemu can't deny it any longer. She really is sick. Reiko finds a place to stay, but before she moves out, she has something to tell Uryuu.

Nemu woke up feeling dizzy and nauseous. Why did this keep happening? It wasn't fair. The first vacation she'd ever taken in her life just had to coincide with some persistent low level sickness. It usually went away as the day went by. She hoped that was the case for today.

As she rose from her futon feeling weak and shaky, she suddenly started to gag. Quickly staggering to the small bathroom attached to her room, she barely made it to the toilet before she began to vomit. She couldn't blame this on Uraharas rental gigai or a stomach bug. This was the worst she'd felt all week. She could no longer ignore the fact that she was genuinely ill.

Disappointment hit her as she got up to wash her face in the sink. This required getting medical help. She loathed the thought of reporting to the lab. She would much rather go to the fourth division for treatment. They were far more gentle and understanding. Also, she didn't want Mayuri-sama to know. If he found out she was sick, he might take an interest. She could imagine he would run her through all kinds of tests just out of curiosity. Being that she was on vacation, no one would wonder where she was if she did go to the fourths compound. She decided to do just that. Still, this ruined her plans. She would have to call off her day with Uryuu.

She carefully washed and dried her hands and face, rinsed out her mouth and brushed her teeth. Even the smell of the toothpaste made her gorge rise. Returning to her futon, she crawled under the still warm comforter. She wrapped it tight around her. It hadn't been very cold in the bathroom, but she still felt chilled. She shivered until her body felt warm again. Once she felt comfortable, she picked up her phone.

With great reluctance, she sent Uryuu a text. It wasn't long before he replied. It was short, understanding and concerned. So like him. She sent another message to reassure him it was nothing serious. He sent another reply, wishing he could be there, sending his love. She smiled. She wished he could be there too. She put her phone down and rolled onto her side. She felt so weak. She would rest a bit more before she got up. Still feeling cold, she pulled the comforter over her head. Before she realized it, she went back to sleep.

* * *

Ryuuken frowned as he watched Uryuu fiddling with his cell phone. He did not find that kind of activity appropriate for the breakfast table. Not to mention all the beeps and clicks as Uryuu typed away were distracting. How could he enjoy his newspaper in peace with all that racket?

"Something wrong Uryuu?" he asked.

His son jerked his head up. "Huh?"

"Is there something wrong?" he repeated. "It must be important if you insist on annoying me with that thing."

Uryuu looked guiltily at his phone. "No, no it's nothing."

"Then put it away." Ryuuken insisted.

Uryuu put his phone back in his pocket as his father returned to his paper. So Nemu was sick. He hoped it wasn't too serious. While he was a little worried, he knew she had access to excellent health care. She would be fine. He still wanted to be there. Since he couldn't, he had to figure out what to do with the rest of his day. There was no club meeting today. He supposed he could go down to the Sunflower Seams shop after school and see what new supplies they had in.

"Good morning everyone." Reiko said dejectedly as she took a seat at the table. With a sigh, she took a plate and began to serve herself.

"Are you all right?" Uryuu asked. "I'm guessing working all night at the convenience store took a lot out of you."

"I didn't work all night." She replied. "I got fired."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Fired again? What happened this time?"

She held up her hands defensively. "I swear, this was totally not my fault. There must have been a short in the microwave. It could have happened to anybody!"

"That would explain this then." Ryuuken said folding his paper to show the local news page. A large color photograph accompanied the headline "Convenience Store Fire Successfully Contained."

Reiko buried her face in her hands. "I guess I'll have to spend today job hunting again. I really don't want to. I found a nice apartment nearby in the paper I want to look at. It looks perfect and it's right in my price range! If I don't go there today, maybe somebody else will get it."

Ryuuken furrowed his brows. "May I make a suggestion Ijima-san?" he asked.

"Sure." She said. "Anything if it'll help."

He pushed his glasses higher up on his nose. "I didn't want to insult you by implying you were not capable. I know how important it is for a young person to accomplish things on their own for the sake of their pride and self esteem. However, as you are having trouble keeping employed, I can offer you a position with my hospital's housekeeping department."

Reiko's eyes lit up in gratitude. "You mean it! Oh wait, no I couldn't. You're already loaning me deposit money for apartment hunting."

"I can and will garnish your wages to get it back." Ryuuken pointed out. "After that, I'm sure you will find something else sooner or later."

Reiko said nothing at first. Her voice began to quaver when she tried to speak. "This is really kind of you. I…I"

Uryuu thought it would be best to change the subject. "Ijima-san, there's something odd about your blouse. I can't quite put my finger on it though."

"Oh, you noticed." She said. "Yes, it's off the rack but I didn't like the cuffs or the collar."

"No wonder the stitching doesn't match." Uryuu exclaimed. "Yet the fabrics are identical."

"You wouldn't believe how many fabric shops I had to visit to find this." She said while gesturing at her blouse. "Once I removed the original pieces, I found there wasn't enough material to make the changes I wanted and for some reason I got stubborn and didn't want to go with a different material."

"I know the feeling." Uryuu said with a smile.

Ryuuken was not about to tolerate this. "I'm going to work now. Ijima-san, please stop by sometime today to fill out the employment forms. Uryuu, don't get all wrapped up in your hobby and forget to go to school."

"Like I'd ever do that." Uryuu retorted.

Ryuuken wasn't listening. His mind was already on his work. He left his dishes in the sink and walked out the door.

* * *

Nemu leaned over the table and put her head in her hands. She breathed in the steam from the tea she just ordered. It seemed to help. She still felt sickly, but she had to eat something.

As she walked to the fourth division compound, she had struggled with the competing feelings of nausea and starvation. She still felt like she could throw up, but her body was screaming at her for food. As it was lunchtime already, she stopped at a nearby café the lieutenants usually visited and ordered a small bland meal.

She rested a few minutes, then took a sip of her tea and picked up her chopsticks. After a mouthful or so, she could feel her appetite growing stronger. She was beginning to feel an urge for pickled vegetables. She might order some later. Watching people walk past the front window as she ate, she was only a little surprised to see a group of her fellow lieutenants walk by.

Hinamori Momo spotted her, clutching the sleeve of Ise Nanao to get her attention. Soon the whole group entered the café calling out greeting as they approached her table.

"Nemu, I didn't expect to see you here." Kotetsu Isane said. "How are you enjoying your vacation?"

"Not much today. I don't feel well." Nemu replied. "I was going to visit your compound later today."

"Don't feel well?" Matsumoto Rangiku said with a sly grin on her face. "Had a little too much last night, eh? I know a cure with raw egg and red pepper that'll perk you right up!"

"You would." Nanao sniffed.

Nemu shook her head. "No, I haven't been drinking. I've just been feeling ill for the past few days."

"You don't look sick to me." Momo said. "In fact, you seem to be glowing a little."

"Will everyone please stop telling me I'm glowing." Nemu snapped. "I assure you I have no bioluminescent cells!"

Her friends stood with mouth agape at her outburst. They'd never seen Nemu get so emotional before.

She was instantly contrite. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I reacted like that. Please, sit down."

The woman looked glanced at each other, but accepted her invitation and soon put the incident out of mind. The waiter, a rather handsome man with a thin pencil mustache, soon stopped by to take their orders. Once they were done, they turned their attention back to Nemu.

"So your vacation has not been going well you say?" Nanao asked.

Nemu sighed. "There have been a lot of complications. Nothing is going as I had planned."

Momo's brow furrowed. Nemu was giving her a strange vibe. "You mean you're having problems besides being sick?"

Nemu looked around at the faces of her friends. She had meant to talk to them eventually about her situation sooner or later. She supposed this was as good a time as any.

She started to tell them about what had been going on in the real world. The arrancar attacks. Finding another Quincy. Uryuu helping her get settled in. Reiko frequently interrupting their private time. What she had told Nemu in the bathroom.

"I know I must do something about this situation." Nemu finished. "I just don't know what the appropriate response is."

Matsumoto leaned back crossing her arms in front of her impressive chest. "If it had been me, I would have snatched all the hair off her head and fixed it so no man would look at her again!"

"Matsumoto, please!" Nanao said. "This is serious."

"I was being serious." Matsumoto muttered while rolling her eyes.

Nanao ignored her. "I think you handled things very well so-far. You could probably work things out with this girl with a simple talk."

"Sure." Matsumoto murmured. "A simple talk, a nice heavy stick..."

Nanao hissed at her for silence.

"Nemu," Momo interjected, "what does Ishida-san think of all this?"

"He doesn't like the situation any better than I do." Nemu replied. "He says that Quincy or not, she is annoying and he would be happier to see her go."

"Do you think it would be better if he told this girl about your relationship?" Isane asked.

Nemu gave a wan smile. "Uryuu is too nice sometimes. I think it would be better if I did it."

At that time, the women's orders arrived. There was a lull as they paused to let the waiter set out the food and drinks. Matsumoto boldly watched him walk away as he headed back to the kitchen.

"Always enjoy the ambiance here." She purred, her eyes tracking the oblivious man from behind his back.

Nanao slapped her shoulder. "Will you stop that, you're embarrassing me!"

"What, I'm leaving a big tip." Matsumoto protested as she rubbed her shoulder.

Isane tried to change the subject. "So Nemu-san, before we go back to my compound, do you want to tell me what the symptoms are for this sickness you're having? "

Nemu leaned forward to answer, keeping her voice low so the other women wouldn't hear. She knew some people found descriptions of bodily functions upsetting, particularly if they were eating. With her razor sharp memory, she had no trouble describing everything in great detail. Isane frowned at what she heard.

"Tell me, has your period been late this month?" she asked.

"Yes," Nemu replied.

"How about before that? Was it irregular? Did you only have light spotting?" Isane continued.

"That sounds about right." Nemu said. "Why? What do you think it is?"

Isane looked very uncomfortable as she noticed all the woman at the table were watching them intently. Gesturing to Nemu to lean closer, she bent forward and whispered in her ear. As she listened, Nemu's eyes widened in alarm. She shot to her feet in reaction.

"No." she said. "You must be wrong. That's impossible."

"You have to consider the possibility." Isane replied. "Ishida-san has a very powerful reiatsu. If you two have been…"

"Leave him out of this!" Nemu said raising her voice. "You don't understand. It's simply not possible!"

Turning on her heel, she headed out the door. After taking a few steps, she stopped, returned to the table, fumbled some money out of her obi, slammed it on the table, then stalked out the door for good, all without making eye contact with any of her friends.

"Isane, what was that all about?" Momo asked. "Did Ishida-san do something to her?"

"I'd rather not say." She said. "It's just a suspicion. It may be nothing."

Matsumoto frowned. "Do you think we need to go talk to him? He seemed like a nice enough boy, but people can fool you. He may have a hidden side we don't know about. It's important for men to realize you must be open and honest in a relationship."

"That's true." Nanao said, nodding in agreement. "They also need to realize women are not toys or objects and need to respect their feelings."

"Yes, exactly." Momo said. Her eyes had a strange, distant look in them as she spoke. "Men need to realize the worst thing you can do to a woman is to toy with her emotions and play games with her heart. How much it hurts to feel fooled and betrayed. How it feels worse than spikes of glass plunging into your heart. A man who would do such terrible things, he should… he should have his babymaker cut off with a dull zampakuto!"

Everyone's head snapped as they stared at her in shock.

"Momo!" Nanao exclaimed.

Momo quickly snapped out of it. "Oh, sorry." She said meekly. "Did I say that out loud?"

Isane reached over to lay a hand on Momo's shoulder. "Maybe you should come back with me after lunch. There's someone I think you should talk to. I think it'll help."

"So what should we do about Nemu?" Matsumoto asked.

"I know not our strong suit, "Isane replied, "but I think we should leave Nemu alone for now. She will have to sort things out on her own."

After a moment to think about it, the woman nodded at this. Sometimes, the best way to help a friend was to give them some space. They went back to eating their lunch.

* * *

Nemu leaned against the door to her room as soon as she got inside. Her breath came in heaving gasps and not just because she had run all the way home. She was struggling inside to reject Isane's suggestion.

"It's not possible." She whispered.

Isane couldn't understand why her diagnosis couldn't possibly be correct. She had never examined Nemu before. She didn't know about how polluted Nemu's body was. She was completely wrong.

But what if, hypothetically, she was right? Unconsciously, Nemu put her hand over her abdomen. If Isane were right, there would be dire consequences. Serious repercussions. Her mind's eye filled her imagination with images of her father's face. She could picture him angry and disgusted, lashing out at her in rage. That was the best case scenario. It would be far worse if he became…interested.

Her back slid down the door as she curled up in ball. She knew something was wrong with her. It couldn't be that. It had to be something else. She needed to find out exactly what it was. Only now, she was too afraid to try.

* * *

Standing on a nearby rooftop, Sargon kept his reiatsu tightly controlled as he watched the silver haired man leaving the hospital. He had been following Ryuuken off and on over several days. Approaching him for information had been Plan C, a contingency move he had hoped he wouldn't need. This was more than a little bit dangerous. He was impressed by the amount of power the human seemed to posses. He would have to approach the man with caution. His target was not only powerful, he seemed to be very skilled as well. As Ryuuken entered a restaurant, Sargon made his decision. He would make his move tomorrow.

* * *

Uryuu put his toothbrush away and headed back to his bedroom. Despite the change in plans, it hadn't been a bad day. There were many new pattern books in at Sunflower Seams. Being a regular customer, the clerks didn't mind him spending a few hours looking at them all. It took a lot of self control for him to only buy three before going home. It had been nice to spend the day indulging in his hobby he thought as he got into bed. He still would have rather spent the day with Nemu. He had just gotten under the covers when he heard a knock at the door. He was surprised. With Ryuuken still working, he guessed it had to be Reiko. Why would she want to see him now?

"Come in." He said.

Reiko opened the door and stuck her head in. "Hi, Ishida-san. Is this a good time? I see you're in bed already."

"No, now is fine." He said. "What did you need?"

She opened the door wider. She had on a long terry cloth robe and pink fuzzy slippers. "I just wanted to talk. Can I come in?"

"Uh, sure." He said gesturing for her to enter. He moved over to allow her to sit on the edge of his bed. "What did you want to talk about?"

She looked around his room, swiveling her head from side to side as she sat down. "Well, this will be my last night staying here with you and your father. It's kinda weird. I know I didn't stay here long, but it's like I'm leaving home. I'm really going to miss it here."

Uryuu would have liked to say the feeling was mutual, but lying was against the code of the quincy. "It's not like you're going very far. Your apartment's only half an hour away."

"I know." She said. "It's just that I really like staying here with you. In a way, it's like I finally belonged somewhere. Like I have a family."

Uryuu adjusted his glasses. This was making him uncomfortable. He changed the subject. "So what are you going to do now?"

Reiko sighed. "I really don't know. I'm glad your father got me that job at his hospital. I'm going to do my best when I show up tomorrow! This is one job I am NOT going to lose. You just watch. Then when I get off work, I'll move in to my place. You'll help me won't you?"

"It's not like you have a lot of stuff." He pointed out.

"No, but I will need someone to help me go shopping and pick up a few things."She said "I can a sleeping bag and some paper plates and stuff to get me through until I start making money."

"Have you decided if you're going to settle down instead of looking for more quincys?" He asked.

Reiko looked thoughtful as she considered the question. "I still think there are more quincy out there. I may go looking for them again someday. For right now, I think I should stay for a while. Of course, I could see settling down here permanently if I had like a really good reason."

"Oh?" Uryuu said. "Like what?"

Reiko seemed to get a little flustered. "Like…like learning more from your grandfather's collection. There's still so much I haven't read and techniques I have to learn."

"That's true." Uryuu agreed. "I've read through the entire collection several times and it seems like I find something new every time."

"It's kinda scary when you think about it." She said. "For all we know, that may be the last body of written work on Quincy lore. What if something happened to it?"

The very thought chilled Uryuu to the bone. "Our family has guarded those scrolls and artifacts for generations. I will be just as careful as they were."

"Still things happen." She insisted. "Haven't things been lost or damaged over the years? Things like fires and earthquakes happen all the time. I'm betting more than a few scrolls were lost that way. Can you say for sure the collection is complete?"

Uryu shook his head. "No, I know some of it is missing. There are references in some of the books that point to other works I don't have."

"That's sad." Reiko said. "Whole areas of knowledge gone forever."

"Maybe not all of them" he said.

"You think there are other copies somewhere else?" she asked.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure Ryuuken has them somewhere." He replied.

"Your father?" She said in surprise. "I though he hated being a quincy? Why would he have part of your grandfather's collection?"

Uryuu had wondered about that a lot himself. "I don't know. I'm sure he has his reasons."

Yes, Ryuuken may indeed have very good reasons for keeping part of the collection from him. Uryuu wished sometimes he felt close enough to him to ask him why.

"Ishida-san." Reiko said. "Would it be alright if I asked you something kinda personal?"

"I suppose." He answered cautiously. "What do you want to know?"

Reiko's eyes were on the floor as she asked her question. "I just wanted to know…do you think there's a future for the quincy? I mean, do you see there being more of us someday? Maybe this time finding a way to fit in with the world?"

A future for the quincy? He had to smile. It wasn't something he thought about a lot, but he did think about it sometimes. Getting married. Having children. Passing on his knowledge and skills. Since his fight with Ichigo, he felt a new commitment to his grandfathers' dream of shinigami and quincy working together. He wanted to pass that along as well. It was a wonderful vision.

"Yes I do." He answered. "I can see the quincy moving forward in the future. This time, we will work with order and nature instead of unbalancing it. I'm convinced my grandfather had the right idea to make this happen. I'm going to work hard to make sure his dream becomes real."

Reiko smiled at him. "I'm glad you're not like your father." She said. "I want to the quincy to have a future too."

With that, she worked at the knot at the front of her robe. As Uryuu watched in bewilderment and alarm, he could see nothing but skin as she began to slip it off her shoulders. He quickly seized her hands!

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you think you're doing?" He demanded.

Reiko grinned at him. "I'm thanking you for all your help."

Uryuu felt horror and shame rush throughout his body. "Ijima-san, if I said or did anything to imply that you owed me, um, _favors _for my help, I am so, so sorry. Whatever it was, believe me, you don't owe me anything, especially, uh, you know, _that kind_ of thanks. Please, forgive me."

"O.K., fine," she said as she tried to pull his hands away. "I admit it. I'm doing this because I want to."

While relieved he hadn't inadvertently pressured Reiko to act this way, he still have quite a problem on his hands. He held her robe firmly closed.

"Ijima-san, we barely know each other." He said "You really should think this through."

"I have." She said earnestly. "I thought about it since I first met you. Can't you see it, Uryuu? This is destiny! We are the future of the quincy!"

It scared him more than a little bit to hear her using his name so familiarly all the sudden. He needed to shut this down now.

"Ijima-san," He said sticking to the formal use of her name, "I understand why you are thinking this way, but it's not going to work. I'm in a steady relationship right now and I don't see it changing anytime soon."

"You mean the shinigami girl?" Reiko said with a smirk.

"You know about Nemu and me?" He asked as he let go of her robe and leaned back.

"Everybody must know by now." She said. "You guys are so obvious. It's all right, I'm not upset. I understand."

"You don't sound like you understand." He said.

"Believe me I do." She said. "I used to be in the same situation. You must have been so lonely surrounded by people who could never understand what you're going through. How could a relationship with a normal be satisfying? But we're together now. We have the same history, the same powers, we know what it's like to live this way. You don't have to be alone anymore. You don't have to settle for that shinigami."

Uryu didn't like what he was hearing. "Settle?"

Reiko laughed. "Oh come on! I know how it is for a man. You have needs, she's not exactly unattractive, she was convenient. Why not, eh? But you don't need her anymore. Now you can finally have a real relationship with one of your own kind!"

That did it. Carefully getting out of bed on the other side, Uryuu drew himself up to his full height. He looked down his nose at Reiko

With a voice like a glacier, he said "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Now."

Reiko looked at him with astonishment. "What? You're rejecting me?"

"Absolutely." He said scowling. "You have insulted someone I care for deeply and I am not going to put up with it any longer."

Reiko stood up and began to angrily tie the sash on her robe. "Are you telling me you'd rather sleep with that, that, THING than one of your own kind?"

Uryuu fought to control his rapidly growing fury. "Ijima-san, we may both be quincys, but you are certainly not my kind!"

He went to the door and held it open. "Get out, and good evening to you."

Reiko's face was a mask of rage. She stepped into Uryuu's personal space and pointed her finger at him.

"You are going to regret this." She threatened.

"I doubt it." He replied coolly. "Now good night."

"Fine!" she growled. "Good night!"

Scowling, she stomped out into the hallway. As soon as she was out the door, she stopped and slowly turned around.

"Oh, one last thing Ishida-sama." She said mockingly.

"What's that?" He asked.

"You're stitching is uneven and your patterns suck!"

Eyes widening with outrage, he slammed the door in her face.

* * *

Uryuu tossed and turned as he tried to get to sleep. He knew it was foolish, but he couldn't stop being angry at Reiko. She still thought of Nemu like she was an animal or a machine. So she had been lying to him? He thought he had really gotten through to her. Well it didn't matter. She was moving out. She really needed to do something about her attitude. Nemu was not a thing. She was a person with dignity and feelings. It really bothered him. Nemu was like a flower opening up in the sunshine. She hid behind a mask most of her life to protect herself. Now she was starting to leave that shelter behind to explore who she really was and what she wanted. It made Uryuu want to protect her all the more. How dare Reiko imply he was just using her as a convenience! And his stitching was _NOT _uneven!

Squinting at his alarm clock he was able to make out the glowing numbers. It was 1 am. He wasn't going to get any rest at this rate. Maybe he could use a little air. He got up, taking his robe off the hook on his door and putting on his slippers. He wasn't going to go anywhere far. Sitting in the back yard for a while should be enough. He looked towards the guest room as he entered the hallway. Reiko had the door closed, presumably asleep. Going downstairs, the house was lit by the full moon outside. He didn't see a need to put the lights on. Sliding the glass door open, he went outside and looked up at the moon. He took a deep breath of the crisp night air. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Ryuuken took a drag on his cigarette right next to him.

"You're up late." he said.

"I couldn't sleep." Uryuu replied. "You?"

"I just got home." Ryuuken said. They stood in awkward silence after that, side by side looking up at the moon. After minute, Ryuuken shook out a cigarette from his pack and offered it to Uryuu. He looked at his father as though he were crazy. With a slight shrug, Ryuuken put the pack back in his coat pocket. More time passed. Ryuuken took another long drag.

Uryuu looked over at his father. "Ryuuken?" He began to ask.

Ryuken turned his head and raised his eyebrow. Uryuu really wanted to talk to him. He needed to talk to someone. He felt like he was juggling a lot of problems with no one to share the burden. It would really help to get some advice.

"Well?" Reyuken asked. "What is it?"

Uryuu turned to face him. As he looked at his father, he could feel all his resolve draining away.

"Nothing." He said. He went back in the house.

After a while, Ryuuken finished his cigarette and crushed it out. He had a pretty good idea about what his son wanted to talk to him about. If only they had that kind of relationship. He went inside.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary:** The arrancars make their final move. Nemu learns the truth about her condition. Last Chapter.

"Most parents would be proud of their son getting a scholarship to Tokyo University." Ryuuken said as he placed his clothes in his luggage.

"I am proud of you." Souken replied. "I know you wanted this and you worked hard for it. I have no doubt you will be just as successful in your studies and I will be able to brag to all the neighbors about my son the doctor."

Ryuuken closed his suitcase. "So let me follow my own path already. Why won't you let me be what I want to be?"

Souken held up his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm not standing in your way. There's no reason you can't be a doctor too."

"There." Ryuuken snarled. "There it is. You said 'too'. Don't you get it? I don't want to be a Quincy anymore. I'm going to be a doctor! Nothing else!"

Souken protested. "Being a Quincy is as much a part of you as breathing. It's not something you can turn off."

Ryuuken grabbed his backpack and began emptying the remaining items from his dresser. It was the last thing he had to do.

"I may have powers, that doesn't mean I have to use them."

Souken's face became sorrowful at his son's angry words. "Turning your back on your powers would be irresponsible. You have an obligation to help people."

"I have an obligation to help LIVING people." Ryuuken shot back. "Let the shinigami handle the dead. That's their job anyway. The time for the Quincy is past. I'm going to focus on what's important. Maybe if you had done the same, mother…"

Ryuuken wished he could pull the words back into his mouth as soon as he had said them. He was being unfair. Looking at his father's face, he could see the hurt he had caused. No matter what he thought about his father or their poverty, he didn't have the right to say things like that. He should apologize.

Instead he picked up his bags.

"Goodbye Father." He said. He stepped past Souken and headed towards the door.

"Ryuken, wait."

He turned around to see Souken holding out a bronze cylinder. His eyebrows drew together in puzzlement.

"Why are you giving me this?" He asked.

"Whatever you may do, you are still my son." Souken answered. "This is your birthright. I won't try to tell you how to run your life. If you don't wish to live as a Quincy, I understand. All I ask is for you to pass this along. Let the spark of the Quincy burn just a little longer."

Ryuuken didn't understand. "Why are you giving this to me now?"

Souken's smile was sad and tired as he looked at his angry, suspicious child. "Call it hope. Everything looks clear and simple when you're young. I'm hoping later on this will remind you that there is more to our world than most people know. That you are always welcome back."

Ryuuken looked at the old bronze artifact. It had been handed down in the Ishida family to whoever displayed the talent for weapon smith, from father to son, for centuries. It was a powerful reminder of the dedication and sacrifice his family had made to protect both the living and the dead. He looked up into his father's eyes. He saw the hope and forgiveness in them. He knew his father was a good man and was sincere in his beliefs. If only to honor his father, he should take it.

* * *

The intercom on his desk buzzed.

"Yes, what is it? "Mayuri impatiently asked.

"This is the reception desk Mayuri-sama. You gave orders for us to notify you if Lieutenant Nemu returned to the lab. She just walked in."

Mayuri perked up immediately. "She did? Excellent!"

He sprang up from behind his desk and hurried to the main lab where he was sure to meet her. As he rushed over, he fished around in his sleeve pocket for the notes he had made for just his occasion. He had spent several hours in front of a chalkboard charting and plotting, thinking of ways to ask seemingly harmless questions or make innocuous statements that would act like psychological viruses, planting the seeds of doubt in Nemu's mind about the Quincy's loyalty and affection. If everything went according to plan, they would soon start fighting as her mind was filled with jealousy and uncertainty. Enough of that and the boy would leave her. Then she could get back to work without this senseless distraction. Then she would only listen to him once more. Just like she used to. He found the perfect spot to intercept her and skimmed over his notes, picking out a few really good ones to use. This was going to be fun!

Nemu entered the main lab walking fast.

"Hello my dear." Mayuri said holding his hands out in greeting. "How are you today?"

"Analysis lab!" She barked out. She rushed right past him without even making eye contact.

Mayuri stood flat footed in disbelief. Did she just IGNORE him! It took him a couple of seconds just to absorb the fact. The shock was soon washed away by anger. How dare she storm off without giving him an opportunity to execute his brilliant plan! He stomped over to the analysis lab door. She had locked it!

"Nemu!" he shouted as he pounded on the door. "Open this door immediately. Do you hear me? Nemu!"

Oh, she was so going to get it now. He was going to grab her by her scrawny neck and…no. He had to calm down. He had to stick to the plan. It was sure to work once he had a chance to use it. After all, he made it. How could it fail? He just needed a moment to calm down and get back on track. Maybe yelling at Hiyosu for a while would help.

* * *

Nemu had heard Mayuri-sama pounding on the door. Like everything else, it had seemed far away and insignificant. She had spent all night wracked with fear and indecision. Isane's diagnosis could not possibly be correct. On the other hand, what other explanation was there? Trying to figure out whether to go to the fourth division or to examine herself, she finally decided it would be best to use the lab to find out what was wrong with her. Once she knew it wasn't…_that_, she could either treat her sickness or have the fourth division prescribe a treatment. It was absurd for her to worry so much over something that couldn't happen. It had to be a metabolic imbalance of some sort. Still, she fidgeted impatiently as she waited for the computer to analyze her blood sample.

The computer beeped and a dialog box popped up on the screen. This was it. One click and she would know for sure was wrong. She took a deep breath and clicked the icon. A screen opened up with her results

"No." She whispered to herself. "This can't be right."

She pulled up the file containing her last bio-inventory. Her body was supposed to contain dozens of potions and chemicals. Her previous blood sample had them all listed and outlined, grouped by type. They were even visible in her blood, the file photo showing them highlighted by different color codes. This was in sharp contrast with her current blood sample. It had nothing in it. Nothing at all. To all intents and purposes, she was looking at a sample of baseline shinigami normal blood. She was perfectly clean.

"How?" she wondered aloud. "When did this happen?"

The fear she had been carrying all night grew and spread. With her body cleansed, _it_ was no longer an impossibility. There was only one other thing left to check. She pulled up the appropriate reference file and compared it to her blood sample's charted hormone levels. Her jaw dropped. She placed her hand on her stomach as she looked down.

It was true. She was pregnant. Deep inside of her a new life was forming. She was with child.

For a moment, she felt completely numb. It was as if time had stopped. With this one fact, Nemu's entire existence had changed. True she was still the same person, still had the same thoughts, still looked the same in the mirror. Nonetheless, everything had completely and irrevocably changed. The universe seemed to have paused to give her a second to deal with it.

What she felt next was entirely unexpected. Like a river thawing out from the ice in the spring, it started small, then grew in strength, feeding into itself. She felt as though gravity had lost its pull on her and her body had filled with light as she experienced a feeling of transcendent joy. She couldn't remember why she had ever felt afraid. Something she had not realized she had always wanted, had even feared was impossible, was happening right now. It was wonderful. This child was nothing less to her than a miracle, the result of her and Uryuu's love. Accepting her new situation, she found that she already treasured it more than anything else in the world. Was she imagining things, or could she already feel the spark of the baby's life in her mind? She stroked her abdomen as she projected thoughts of welcome and love. Worries and fears could wait for another time as she pictured holding her child in her arms. She wanted this more than anything as she wrapped her arms around herself.

Uryuu.

She had to tell Uryuu immediately.

* * *

Mayuri composed himself as he waited outside of the analysis lab. He carefully schooled his features to radiate paternal concern instead of the furious rage he actually felt. To abandon his carefully planned psychological warfare was as good as admitting his plan wouldn't work. He was far too stubborn to give in that easily. He would limit himself to a few stern words of rebuke, then he would invite her to stay for tea. A few carefully worded statements here and there and her own mind would work to fill in the gaps, painting the Quincy as false and untrustworthy. The sweet, sweet rewards of revenge would more than make up for any momentary agitation he felt now. He heard the door unlock and prepared himself.

"Now see here young lady…" He began.

Nemu completely ignored him and took off at a run.

Mayuri was absolutely flabbergasted! Ignored again? That did it. This kindly father act was definitely a bad idea. And what was she so upset about anyway that she'd go running off like that? He entered the analysis lab to see what she had been working on. His eyes narrowed as he saw the monitor was blank. Pulling up the most recent activity log was no help either. Nemu had gone back and thoroughly erased the last hour. Now why would she do that?

"Mayuri-sama! Mayuri-sama!"

Rin came into the room at a stumbling run. From his red face and wide, staring eyes, he was obviously excited about something. He waved a handful of papers at his captain.

Mayuri did not like being distracted. Nemu's actions had raised his suspicion. He didn't want to deal with anything else at the moment.

"What is it you fool? Can't you see I'm busy?"

Rin fought to regain his breath. "I finished analyzing the anomalies on the subject you assigned me Mayuri-sama. You're not going to believe this!"

Mayuri snatched the papers from the young assistant's hands. He was most likely excited over a rounding error no doubt. As he looked over Rin's work, he saw this was not the case at all. In fact, it was very interesting data indeed. He strolled into the surveillance department still reading.

"Hiyosu!" He barked.

Having just endured an undeserved chewing out earlier, Hiyosu jumped when his name was called.

"Yes Mayuri-sama?"

Mayuri handed him the papers. "Get this subject on screen and keep her there. Go active is you have to. Akon!"

"Yes, Mayuri-sama!" The horned researched responded.

"Have all recording sensors in the area locked onto that target. Be ready to start recording at any time. Rin!"

"Yes Mayuri-sama." The youngster squeaked.

"Bring me my favorite chair and make me some tea. I have a feeling this is about to get very interesting."

* * *

Ishida Ryuuken ran a tight ship. He made his usual rounds at precisely 0900, making visits to all the main departments of the hospital. He believed face time with the staff was important in communicating his vision of leadership as well as maintaining a bond with his employees. The modern practice of doing everything through e-mail and PowerPoint saturated meetings left him cold. He did his best to keep his hand in all the functions of the hospital in addition to his patient caseload. He almost smiled as he came across Reiko busily making beds in the ward.

"I see you are fitting in." He said.

Reiko started a bit at his voice. She turned to him and bowed. "Yes. Thank you once again Ishida-san. I am very grateful you hired me. I will do my best to make you proud!"

"Just don't set my hospital on fire and I'm sure you'll do fine." He replied dryly. "So will this be the last time you have dinner with us?"

Reiko's mouth tightened into a line. "No offense Ishida-san, but I believe I will move straight to my new apartment after work. Thank you anyway."

"I noticed you seemed a bit tense at breakfast today. Is there anything you want to tell me about?" He asked.

"No sir." she replied. "It's a personal thing and I do not want to talk about it right now."

Ryuuken had his suspicions as to what happened. Uryuu had finished eating unusually fast and hadn't said a word to Reiko besides a stiff greeting. He was sure the truth would come out sooner or later.

"Well, let me know if you need from me." He said as he headed back to his office. Reiko gave another bow and got back to changing the bed linens.

His secretary rose to her feet as he approached.

"My apologies Dr. Ishida, I don't remember you scheduling a meeting today with anyone, but this man insisted."

"Man?" Ryuuken said. "Did he give his name?"

"No sir." She replied. "He just said you would be sure to want to talk to him. He's waiting in your office."

With a raised eyebrow, Ryuuken entered his office to see a rather large man in a stylish dark suit sitting in the guest chair waiting for him. He was clean shaven with dark, close cropped hair. His face was broad with a strong nose and firm jaw. He stood up, easily head and shoulders above Ryuuken as he offered his hand.

"Dr. Ishida." He exclaimed. "It's so good to see you."

"My apologies." Ryuuken said cautiously shaking his hand. "I don't recall ever meeting you before or requesting this meeting."

"I should be the one apologizing." The man said. "You may call me Sarumara."

Uninvited or not, Ryuuken had his secretary bring in tea for his guest. The two men exchanged the standard pleasantries common before getting down to business, formally exchanging business cards and asking the usual politely superficial questions. Sarumara took the initiative to bring the subject to the matter at hand.

"My thanks for your warm greeting, despite my rudely barging in." He said.

"Not at all." Ryuuken graciously allowed. "I imagine whatever you wished to see me about must be important indeed if you felt you had to take such extreme measures."

"It is." Sarumara said. "It involves who you are."

Ryuuken steepled his hands. "You have a medical condition of some kind? While I like to pride myself on my skill, there are many specialists better than I am. I'm mostly an administrator at his point in my career.

Sarumara chuckled. "No, Dr. Ishida. I did not come here to see you in your capacity as a doctor. I came to see you for your other specialty."

Ryuuken raised an eyebrow at the insinuation. "Other speciality?"

"There's no need to hide it." The man said as he put his teacup down. "My people have been studying you for some time. We know all about your skills, you abilities. Your heritage. There's something you have that we want."

"Assuming you are not badly mistaken Sarumara-san, what would that be?" Ryuuken asked.

"I understand you have abandoned your Quincy identity." Sarumara explained. "That should make our proposal easy for you. We are willing to pay handsomely for the artifacts and documents your father left you. Name your price or set any condition you wish."

If Ryuuken was shocked or alarmed that his man knew about his being a Quincy, he gave no sign, sitting calmly as always behind his desk.

"I may not act as a Quincy, that does not mean I wish to rid myself of my inheritance."

Sarumara spread his hands out in a ___conciliatory_ gesture. "I can understand you having some sentimental attachment. Perhaps you could see your way to parting with one item we are particularly interested in."

"And what would that be?" Ryuuken asked.

Sarumara's expression became very focused, almost predatory. "What we are looking for is bronze scroll cylinder."

Ryuuken's eye's narrowed. "You want the secret to making Quincy weapons."

"Precisely." Sarumara said.

"It wouldn't do you any good." Ryuuken pointed out. "Even with the knowledge of how the weapons are made, they are useless if the weaponsmith doesn't have the talent."

"Then you shouldn't have any worry about giving it to me." Sarumara rationalized. "It has been said that you believe the time for the Quincy has past. If you no longer wish to pass on your knowledge, why not give it to me? Surely there's something you wish in exchange. Name it, and I will strive to make your wish come true. All I ask is for an old scroll with knowledge you admit I cannot use and you no longer want."

Ryuuken's gaze had fallen to his desktop as Sarumara pleaded his case. As the big man fell silent, He looked up at his visitor.

"Sarumara-san, I find this a lot to absorb in such a short period of time. I cannot make such a decision after having just now met you and knowing nothing about you or the organization you represent."

"I understand completely." Sarumara said leaning back. "We can be patient and take the time to do things properly."

"I'm glad to see you understand." Ryuuken said while opening a drawer in his desk. "In the meantime, as a show of good faith, I would like you to have this."

He tossed a small gray metallic sphere at the large man. Surprised, Sarumara instinctively caught it. The item reacted immediately. Electric arcs radiated from his hand sweeping in waves across Sarumara's body. He howled in agony.

"I have to commend you on your excellent camouflage." Ryuuken calmly said as he rose to his feet. "I couldn't tell if you were anything other than a normal human. Of course, if you were, my little toy wouldn't be draining your reiatsu now. It's one of those artifacts you were so eager to purchase from me."

Sarumara's human exterior flickered as the device absorbed his power and his ability to maintain his human appearance along with it. As he finally managed to open his hand and fling the hollow trap away, Sargon stood revealed at last. He looked up to see Ryuuken had him covered with his bow.

"You must be very strong indeed to be able to let that go." He said. "It's not supposed to stop until the hollow is completely drained. You must have saturated it. Congratulations. Now before I send you into the void, would you like to tell me the real reason you are seeking the scroll?"

Sargon gritted his teeth in rage. There was nothing he could do. All the Quincy had to do was release his bowstring and it was all over. At this range, he couldn't miss. The slight smile on Ryuuken's face told him the Quincy knew it too.

Reiko burst into the room. "Ishida-san, is something wrong? I thought I...OH!"

She froze as she saw the arrancar standing in the middle of the room.

"Ijima! Get out of here!" Ryuuken shouted.

* * *

Uryuu sprinted up the steps from the train station. The words of Ochi-sensei still echoed in his ears.

"Ishida-san, your father has been hurt. There was some kind of accident, an explosion at his hospital and he's in emergency care."

He was sure he had asked to be excused from class. He couldn't remember. Trying to feel Ryuuken's reiatsu, he was alarmed by how weak and unsteady it was. The hospital entrance was swarming with police and fire fighters. He ignored them, running past the barricade they were trying to set up and entering the hospital. He ran right past the reception desk, ignoring the nurse's calls to stop. Ryuuken's office was on the way to the emergency room and he could see it was a blasted ruin as the firefighters continued to pour water into it. They were blocking his path. He had to detour around the other way to get to his father. Rushing around a corner, he bumped into a doctor he barely remembered and whose name he couldn't recall. The man caught Uryuu by the shoulders.

"Whoa, slow down there son. You could get hurt."

"My father." Uryuu gasped out. "He's in the emergency room."

"Yes, I know, Uryuu-kun." The doctor said. "Here. I'll take you to him."

They did not run, but the doctor spared no time taking Uryuu to Ryuuken's side. He was unconscious, tubes and IV lines running into his body and several ominous looking machines connected to his chest.

"What's wrong with him?" Uryuu asked.

"We're not sure." The doctor told him. "Some debris or shrapnel from the explosion went right through his chest. We're not sure what. It passed through very cleanly. He's suffered a lot of blood loss and shock. What's puzzling is the paralysis."

Uryuu's ears pricked up at that. "Paralysis?"

"Yes." The doctor continued. "He is currently hooked up to a ventilator and a pacemaker. For some reason, all of his muscles are seizing up. It's like he was poisoned somehow. We're waiting on results from the lab to be sure."

Uryuu already had a pretty good idea of what it was. Ryuuken had been attacked by the same arrancar that attacked Afro-san. He was exhibiting all the same symptoms. Judging by the havoc wreaked on his office, he could assume Ryuuken didn't go down easily. So why did the monster leave? Why didn't it finish the job? A possible answer formed in his mind.

"Doctor, was there anyone else found with my father?" He asked.

The doctor looked a little surprised. "No, your father was alone when we found him. Why do you ask?"

Uryuu ignored the question. "Did anyone see a young woman with glasses and dark hair nearby?"

"I remember seeing someone like that earlier." The doctor said as rubbed his chin. "I don't remember seeing her lately, but it's chaotic around here right now."

Uryuu reached out with his senses. There was no trace of Reiko anywhere. That wouldn't be unusual if she were hiding. That meant he had to look for some other way to find her. After a moment's concentration, he felt it. It was very brief and faint, but unmistakable. The reiatsu of an arrancar. He even knew who it was. It was the one he had faced in an alley days ago. His reiatsu signature flickered and moved quickly away from the hospital. No doubt he was too injured to properly mask his presence. Mentally tracing the route he was taking, a destination became clear.

"I have to go." He blurted out.

"Wait, where are you going?" The doctor asked. It was too late. Uryuu had already exited the building at a run.

* * *

Nemu stood before the senkaimon gate clutching her phone. She could just text the news to Uryuu, but that seemed so impersonal. On the other hand, the thought of telling him face to face made her nervous. She looked at her phone for what seemed like the thousandth time. Finally, she put it away. This had to be done right. She would do it in person. It would be a pain stopping to get a gigai. She wondered how he would take it. Would he be happy? She couldn't see him getting angry. It was a lot to deal with all of the sudden. She really had no idea how he would react. She took a deep breath, screwed her courage to the sticking point, and entered the gate.

* * *

Uryuu approached with caution, seele schneider in his left hand. It was odd that Reiko had run to his little private spot. He supposed it made some sense. It was away from people and property. She would be able to fight more effectively with no witnesses around. Still, he hadn't felt anything from her as he tracked the arrancar that was chasing her. Using the trees for cover, he made his way to the clearing by the waterfall. Just through the leaves and tall grass, he saw her. She was standing perfectly still with her back to him, arms at her side. In front of her, the form of what looked like a man would flicker like an old television screen, revealing the arrancars true form. His teeth were bared in anger as he said something to Reiko. They were too far away for him to hear. No doubt she was too terrified to move. On the other hand, with the arrancar focusing on Reiko, he should have a clear shot. He summoned his bow and set a seele schneider on its string.

"Ijima, duck!" he shouted.

She whirled around in surprise, but did as she was told. The arrancar looked completely stunned at his attack and stood there with his mouth open. Before he could recover, the seele schneider hit him right between the eyes. He didn't even have time to scream before he dissolved away.

Reiko ran to Uryuu and buried her face in his chest.

"Uryuu! Thank you! I was so scared."

He extinguished his bow and put his arms around her instinctively, stroking her hair to calm her down.

"Shhh, shhh, it's all right now." He reassured her.

She began to sob. "But your father got hurt. He was fighting the arrancar and I ran. I didn't help him."

"It's all right." Uryuu said. "You did the right thing. That was too much for you to handle, you would only have gotten hurt. Ryuuken's alright. He's injured pretty badly, but he'll get better."

"I still should have done more." She said.

"There's nothing more you could have done." He replied. "I'm just glad you survived."

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Really? I thought you didn't like me."

Uryuu gave her a rueful grin as he stepped away from her. "Our differences have nothing to do with it. Protecting the innocent is the Quincy way. Isn't it?"

She took off her glasses and wiped her eyes as she smiled back at him. "I suppose so. I still have a lot to learn I guess."

"Let me go retrieve my seele schneider. " He said. "Then I'll take you back to the hospital."

He turned away from her towards where the arrow was lying on the ground. The sudden change in reiatsu hit him a split second before the zampakuto erupted from his abdomen. He froze in shock and pain, watching as the blade slowly withdrew. Staggering around to look behind him, his hands over his wound, he saw an insect like arrancar holding its sword in a mocking salute, his blood dripping from the guard. The creature grabbed its mask in its free hand and lifted it like a visor to reveal the face of…Reiko.

"Surprise." She sneered.

"How it this possible?" He blurted out. "You're a Quincy!"

She curled her lip in contempt. "Wrong Ishida-sama. I WAS a Quincy. 200 years ago. Didn't you know what happens to Quincy's who are turned to hollows? Why do you think the Quincy started killing hollows? Think about it. Most humans when they are turned have no powers. They bring nothing with them when they change. Not us. I can do everything I could do in life. That makes me even more an abomination in the eyes of the oh-so-righteous Quincy. "

She laughed at the look of shock on Uryuu's face. "Ah, something the little prodigy didn't know? Did your precious grandfather hide that fact from you?"

Her laughter angered Uryuu. He raised his hands to strike her down… and found he couldn't. His hands moved slowly away from abdomen to his side before he lost the ability to move them. Numbness was creeping up his extremities.

"Bet you're feeling the effects of my Vespa's poison." She jeered at him as she waved her sword. "The stronger you are, the longer it takes to affect you. Your father was able to fight for a long time. He almost finished off poor Sargon before we escaped."

Uryuu's arms were now totally numb. He began to feel the paralysis creeping towards his chest. He tried to open his mouth to speak, finding it almost impossible.

"Why?" He forced out between clenched teeth.

"Why what?" She replied. "Why did I pose as a normal Quincy you mean? I'm guessing that's what you want to know. I may as well tell you. I have plenty of time, you're not going anywhere, ha, ha, ha. "

She strode over to Uryuu and seized his right wrist. With a savage jerk, she yanked the cross from his arm. She dangled it in front of his eyes.

"This is what I need. With the secret to making Quincy weapons modified to enhance hollow abilities, my army will be unstoppable. Now I know what you're thinking. You need to have the talent to use that knowledge. Just as I said before, I can do everything I did in life. My father was the clan chief and grandmaster weaponsmith 200 years ago. He trained my brother in the art, but the talent is in me as well. Once I get my hands on that knowledge, nothing will stand in my way. I and my followers will rule Hueco Mundo and hollows will feast on the souls of the living and dead like never before!"

She dropped his cross in the dust and stepped close to stroke his immobile face.

"Now that I know your father has the scroll, I don't need you anymore. I'm sure he'll give it to me in exchange for his only son. Of course, he won't know that you're already gone. I can tell you from experience, nothing is as delicious as a Quincy's soul."

She leaned in close and licked his face from chin to hairline, shuddering in anticipation. Uryuu was powerless to resist her obscene actions.

"Or maybe I could convert you too." She whispered in his ear. "It's not so bad you know. I still remember when it happened to me.

She leaned back to stare deeply into Uryuu's eyes. Her expression was at once euphoric and despairing.

"My team was hunting a pack of dangerous hollows. I got separated and they caught me. They thought it would be fun to turn me and watch me eat the rest of my team. You have no idea what it feels like when the hunger takes you. It's a pain and a desire like nothing a mortal can conceive. When the time came, I lured them out, one at a time. They saw their friend, Ijima Reiko. They had no reason to suspect me. I ate my best friend. I ate my brother. I even ate my once beloved husband."

She closed her eyes, her body quivering at the long ago memory.

"They tasted so good!" She moaned. "Nothing else comes close. Not humans, not shinigami, not even the hollows who converted me. Only Quincy souls can truly satisfy me. You should have seen my son when I came back to the village. He was so happy, so trusting, holding out his hands and shouting 'Mama! Mama!"

She laughed in a high pitched, almost hysterical manner. It went on for a disturbingly long time. She abruptly stopped. Stepping back, she slapped his face hard.

"No," she snarled, "you rejected me. I guess that means you'll break my long fast from Quincy souls. Rest assured I will take my time to savor every morsel. After you, there's only your father left."

By this time, black spots were dancing in Uryuu's vision as he fought for breath. He struggled to retain consciousness as the arrancar opened her mouth and prepared to feed.

"Uryuu!" Nemu's voice called out. "Uryuu, are you there? I have to talk to you. It's important."

"Looks like we have company." Reiko said. "I have an idea."

Uryuu watched as her form wavered and blurred until she looked like a normal person again. She turned his rigid body so his back was to the trail and wrapped her arms around him. She stood up on tiptoe and pressed her lips against his stiff mouth.

Nemu entered the clearing still calling for him. "Uryuu? Oh there you are, I…"

She stared at what she saw before her without comprehending. Uryuu and Reiko? What were they doing?

"What's going on here?" She quietly asked.

Reiko stopped pretending to kiss Uryuu and looked at her. "Oh it's you. Do you mind? You're invading our privacy."

"What are you talking about?" Nemu demanded. "Uryuu?"

"He's with me now, sister." Reiko smirked as she stepped around Uryuu's body. "He's finally realized he's better off with one of his own kind. He doesn't need you anymore."

"Is this true Uryuu?" She asked to his back. "Are you really choosing her over me?"

He couldn't answer of course. He could hear Nemu starting to cry.

"Uryuu, look at me!" she pleaded.

Reiko waved her hands in a dismissive gesture. "Face it girlfriend. You're yesterday's news. Go on home. You're not wanted here."

Uryuu listened as Nemu fought to hold back her tears. He heard her feet twist on the sand and gravel as she turned away and ran back up the path.

Reiko threw back her head and laughed. "You should have seen the look on her face!"

She stepped back around to Uryuu's front and stopped for a second to put her hands on her hips.

"Very clever, using ransotengai to keep breathing. Given time, you may even be able to fight back."

Her figure wavered again as she returned to her arrancar form. "Too bad you're not going to get it. Now where were we?"

Once again, she leaned forward with her mouth open, preparing to devour his soul.

"**_Byakurai #4_**!" Nemu shouted.

The blast of lightning caught Reiko and flung her aside. Nemu, now in shinigami form, leaped to attack. Caught off guard and off balance, Reiko absorbed several punishing kicks as Nemu whirled on her hands, her feet effortlessly finding gaps in the arrancars defenses. Finding her balance, Reiko managed to effectively block once more, and began to counter with her sword. Nemu seemed to dance between the thrusts and slashes, her style changing to incorporate punches and attempting to trap Reiko's sword arm.

As Uryuu struggled to extend his control to his limbs, the two combatants seemed evenly matched. Trying to move, he only succeeded in falling on his face.

Nemu made a mistake. Overextended on a strike, Reiko used sonido to get behind her. She stabbed Nemu through the right shoulder. Nemu screamed and clutched at the blade with her hands.

"Can you feel the poison working its way into your system, bitch?" Reiko snarled. "Soon you won't be able to move. Shinigami make a poor desert after dining on a Quincy, but you know what? I'm going to let you watch as I rip your boyfriend's soul to shreds before I eat you."

She began to laugh as she waited for Vespa's poison to do its work. Nemu took first one deep breath, then another. With a fearsome cry, she struck the blade with her left hand while bracing it with her right. As the blade snapped in half, she snatched the fragment before it could fall with her right hand and twisted her body to plunge it into Reiko's thigh! Now it was the arrancar's turn to scream as she limped backwards holding her leg. She dropped her zampakuto as she pulled at the broken blade buried deep in her flesh.

"How did you do that?" She howled.

Nemu did not feel obliged to inform her that only Mauri-sama's Ashisogi Jizo could paralyze her. She ignored her wounds as she once again went on the attack. Reiko pulled the blade from her leg and threw it at Nemu's head. Ducking to avoid it, she was left open. Reiko used the opportunity to seize Nemu's hair and pull her into her striking range. Forcing herself to stand on her injured leg, Reiko drove her knee into Nemu's stomach, over and over until she felt the shinigmi lose resistance. Smashing Nemu across the face with an elbow strike, she watched in satisfaction as the other woman fell to the ground, holding her stomach and trying to breathe.

Reiko limped over to where her blade had fallen. She put the two pieces back together.

"A valiant effort shinigami. Too bad it earned you nothing."

Holding her zampakuto, she called out its name to regain her true hollow form.

"Defile your prey, Vespa!"

Nemu struggled into a kneeling position as Reiko transformed. All of the arrancar's wounds were healed as she changed into an even more insect like creature. Instead of a sword, her right arm had changed into one long, ivory colored stinger. She looked down at Nemu's defiant eyes.

"Its over." She said. She drew her stinger back and thrust it straight at Nemu's head.

Nemu wasn't there when it arrived.

Reiko felt a vicious blow to her right side and barely caught a glimpse of Nemu as she swung at her. Off balance, she was hit on her left side. Trying to recover, it seemed to make no difference what she did. Nemu seemed to be everywhere, hitting with little style or finesse, substituting instead an unmistakable savagery. Every blow seemed to be calculated not just to hurt, but to punish. This was reinforced by Nemu's face. The few times Reiko managed to catch a glimpse as she desperately tired to fight back, the shinigami's face was a mask of grim determination. Lashing out, Reiko missed striking Nemu again, instead imbedding her stinger arm deep into a tree trunk. Appearing like magic, Nemu locked Reiko into an arm bar and wrenched upward. Reiko's arm snapped under the pressure. She wailed in agony and tried to counter attack with her left hand. Nemu contemptuously swatted it aside and seized her by the throat.

Like a piledriver, Nemu used her free hand to strike her opponent's face over and over. Reiko's weak attempts to defend herself were ignored. She tried to block Nemu's assault, but her left hand fell lower and lower until it hung limp at her side. Her mask shattered under Nemu's relentless pounding. It was then that Nemu realized Reiko was no longer fighting back. She stopped hitting her and let her go. Reiko slumped to her knees. Only her arm, still stuck in the tree's trunk, kept her from falling over.

"Mercy, shinigami." She croaked through bruised lips. "Mercy."

Nemu stood on legs shaky with a combination of fatigue and adrenaline. She looked down on the pitiable creature. The arrancar had tried to kill her. She had threatened to kill the love of her life. She ran a hand absently over her stomach, feeling the waves of pain inside. The hollow may even have taken away the most precious thing of all.

"Very well arrancar." She said as she took her jade seal out of her sleeve. "Here is your mercy."

She brought the seal down on the injured woman's forehead. Light poured out of Reiko's body as her soul was cleansed. Before she faded completely away and shrank down to a bubble of light, her relieved eyes met Nemu's for one last time.

"Thank you." She whispered. Then she was gone.

The rush of combat over, Nemu had to fight the sudden fatigue that inevitably came afterward. She struggled over to where Uryuu was actually managing to get up.

"Here." She said. "Let me help you."

She put his arm over her shoulder and helped him stand.

"You came back." He wheezed. "You weren't fooled?"

Nemu snorted. "Of course not. I just needed to put my gigai somewhere safe. Even if you didn't have that obvious wound in your back, I would never have doubted you."

She stopped to look him in the eye. "The Uryuu I know would never betray me. You are honest and true and love with a pure heart. That's why I love you." She gave him a light kiss. "Now save your breath. We both need medical attention. "

They leaned against each other for support as they staggered up the path.

"Nemu." Uryuuu forced out. "What was it you were trying to tell me earlier? You said it was important."

Nemu forced herself not to think about what may be happening inside. She knew if she thought about it too much, she might break down. If she lost the baby because of this fight, she didn't know what she would do. She had to go to the fourth division immediately. Until she knew the baby was safe, there was no point in telling Uryuu.

"It was nothing." She said. "Now be good and save your breath like I told you."

* * *

Ryuuken entered the library and turned on the light. He felt irritable and clumsy with his arm in a sling. Doctors are notorious for being lousy patients. Approaching the bookshelf, he reached for one volume in particular he hadn't touched in years. Setting it down on his desk, he opened the drawer on top and pulled out a small key. Turning it in the books lock, he opened the cover. The book was not actually a book at all. It was a small container made of _reika gin_, the same soul-synthesized silver he used to construct his underground training area. Inside was the bronze scroll.

So this was the cause of all that fuss, he thought as he picked the smooth metal cylinder up.

His mind went back to the day he took it from Souken. He remembered what his father had said to him. Well it hadn't worked. He still had no desire to be a Quincy. A doctor was all he had wanted to be and he was damned successful at it. He had seen nothing in his lifetime to convince him the world needed Quincy's anymore. Still, his father had been right about one thing. He couldn't just turn it off. His little struggle with the arrancar proved that. It didn't matter. As long as they left him alone, he would continue to focus on helping the living.

But what about Souken's request? Should he pass this knowledge on to Uryuu. He stared at the scroll for a long time as he thought about it. Finally, he put it away. He couldn't give it to Uryuu he decided. The boy simply had no talent. He locked the scroll back in its container and put it on the shelf. As he exited the library, he paused to turn out the light.

The End.


End file.
